WooByoung Yun

Light has the properties of particles and waves, but we cannot feel the properties of waves in terms of human perception and physicality. So I am interested in reality beyond that, what we see, what we think. We can appear completely distinct from nature based on our perceptions, ideas, and particle characteristics. However, if we see reality from a wave perspective in the microscopic world, we may be only waves that cannot be distinguished.

I’ve been working on a series called Superposition since 2018. First, I sketch in a notebook the process of patterning into a specific shape, rather than reproducing what I feel inside or through nature as it is. When I find a sketch I like, I work with plaster and gouache.

It is the work of kneading plaster in water, applying it several times, colouring it again with paint, and then scraping the surface so that the plaster and the paint are in harmony. Colour has strong wave properties and plaster has strong particle properties. I wanted to embody the two qualities I couldn’t meet on one surface.

At first, I tried to express the subject simply by depicting objects with acrylic paint on canvas, like painting the nightscape and the dayscape on one surface at the same time. But to express the subject, I felt I had to depart from describing what was seen, so I made flat, abstract paintings.

I thought it would be good if I could convey the subject with the material alone, and as I explored, I began to use plaster. At first I worried about its fragility. One day a finished work was knocked and its surface scratched, and when I tried to repair it, the white plaster that suddenly appeared felt like the invisible reality of the work coming to the surface.

Rather than covering it with paint again, I began scratching and exposing the plaster inside. That became the technique at the centre of my work today.

Recently I’ve been working on a little three-dimensional and figurative work, away from flatness and abstraction. I think it could bring out the themes I think about in a richer way, through things that are material and figurative.

It is said the human brain has not changed much since we were hunting and gathering. What we see is reconstructed by the brain to make life more survivable. But there are problems in the world now that cannot be solved from that perspective. Quantum mechanics, electronics and AI already use realities beyond what we see, yet there is still a vast world we cannot know. I hope my work can bring those ideas into individual lives.

Even if what we see and believe seems true, we don’t have to blindly believe it. The fact that it may not be the whole of the real world can make our existence humbler, less violent, less compulsive, and more free. So I want to keep exploring and expressing a reality more vivid than what we see.