An exhibition by SAC Resident Artist
Eun Ju Cho
“My work is an art project exploring my feelings about my life in Korea and my new home in Australia. My work is inspired by traditional Korean windows and doors, changmoon, and Korean wrapping cloths, bojagi, using them as a metaphor for passage of time and space. For me, the lines in my work represent my free soul. The line is inspired by the ribbon of the traditional Korean dress, hanbok. I have also used stripes of colour (pink, green, blue, and yellow), saekdong, which references the striped colours on the sleeves of a young child’s hanbok. I have consistently pursued harmony and natural balance in colour, shapes, and lines in my work.
I have continually explored natural harmony and balance in colours and shapes of geometric patterns inspired by Korean traditional windows and doors – changmoon – and Korean wrapping cloths – bojagi. Changmoon is an important element of traditional Korean architecture – hanok. I have used changmoon as a metaphor of a passage of time and space and represented it through geometric abstraction.
My work is based on changmoon and bojagi, but it has been also developed into more abstract associations. My work is intuitive in making connections between formal elements allowing for playing with colours, which produce an intuitive shifting in colours making calmer and more peaceful work, and reflecting the spirituality of living in two different cultures.
I have used obangsaek, the five traditional Korean colours of white, black, blue, yellow and red, as a basis for colour in my work.
In addition to these basic colours, I frequently use pink, turquoise, grey and magenta, which are also associated with Korean traditional arts. Yellow and pink imply unmarried women, virginity and pureness and turquoise, which reminds me of heaven, symbolises pureness, cleanness and the sky.
Grey expresses the feeling of resting after suffering. Grey is solid and stable, creating a sense of calm and composure, and relief from a chaotic world. Magenta symbolizes the harmony between Yin and Yang, and represents the maturity of married women who wear hanbok which use it.
The lines in my work represent my free soul. The line is inspired by the ribbon of the traditional Korean dress, hanbok. I have also used stripes of colour (pink, green, blue, and yellow), saekdong, which references the striped colours on the sleeves of a young child’s hanbok.
I feel the colour combinations of saekdong are harmonious and beautiful.
I have consistently pursued harmony and natural balance in colour, shapes, and lines in my work.”
– Eun Ju Cho
EXHIBITION DATES:
Monday 3 – Saturday 29 September 2018
9:00am – 5:00pm daily
Image Credits: Eun Ju Cho (2018)