I made my official debut in the art world in 1999 by winning an award at the ‘Grand Art Exhibition of Korea,’ one of the largest and most prestigious art competitions in the country. My journey began with painting, and it remains my primary medium of work to this day.

 

“The Visible World and The Invisible World” (2001) / As my early works created as sculptures (2000–2001), At the time of their creation, I spent several months in my studio covered head to toe in plaster powder, producing 15 human figures with an average height of 190 cm, while simultaneously earnestly and seriously I asked myself these questions, “Why do you do art?  What is art to you?” This became the thematic significance of my sculptural work, and at the same time, it was projected as a philosophical belief that permeates my entire artistic practice.

<“Does this exist or does it not? / Like being whose existence defined its own nonexistence. / This is and is not at the same time, and partakes both of existence and of nonexistence. / The existence of a thing... and interacts with the thing-don't-know. / The work takes on an existence of its own.”>