16 Mar Jiyu Kwak
Jiyu Kwak’s artistic practice is based on drawing. The process of her work is shaped by spontaneous gestures, exploring the surface with lines and the spaces in between. In her practice, she focuses on drawing as a method of seeing and sensing in connection to her bodily experience. She thinks of the lines of drawings as a thread generated in her body, just like a spider makes its own. This thread is also the trace of her thoughts that is not translated into words but is somehow expressed through the tip of her hands instead.
During her residency at AADK Spain, Kwak engaged more with the natural environment and reflected on how nature is continuously marking her organic drawing process. Every day she walked around through the mountains and collected elements from the ground. As layers of history are revealed by the mountains, the soft rocks and dust from the soil of the Ricote Valley gave her the idea of the quiet movement of the grounds. She tried to engage with this idea by using the soil from the area both as a painting material and as the inner motive of her drawings.
