Omne 2019
Oms- sky is circle earth is square
2019.5.1 – 5.12
The theme of my art works revolve around nature and Korean philosophy. I create with the ideology of heaven, earth, and “Tian Yuan Di Fang” 천원지방. Etching print making is my expression of the mind. The word Omne represents everything, everywhere; 모든것, 모든곳.
Like water taken in by an organism and metamorphosed into significant and functional genes, my artwork reflects this mutation process of a gene. Imagine the gene spreading to the body which influences the mind as well. The sun, the moon, and the countless stars are expressed with the circular tea-dyed leather. I also installed lines between my works to symbolize human relationship on earth. Isn’t it true that nets of tangled and connected imageries are in one’s heart like the capillary vessels? The white threads I used symbolize a long-lived life. Art and culture overcome any difference between culture and age.
I have been using all types of techniques such as etching print making, tea performances, installation, mixed media painting, etc. to create my artworks. They display everything from my inner self, which were influenced by nature. From my thoughts to my sub-conscious ness, my hands reach for various media to share them with the world. The reason I begin every exhibition with my tea performance is because, you can find all of the aspects of Korean beauty at once. One tea performance can display both Korean art and culture at the same time through the background music, Hanbok, and tea manners.
I made a promise with myself, just like I created artwork for this exhibition, I will
keep creating my life story for my future. As a result of my departure from Korea and living as a Korean-American immigrant, I was given the opportunity to discover myself.
2019.5.1 – 5.12
The theme of my art works revolve around nature and Korean philosophy. I create with the ideology of heaven, earth, and “Tian Yuan Di Fang” 천원지방. Etching print making is my expression of the mind. The word Omne represents everything, everywhere; 모든것, 모든곳.
Like water taken in by an organism and metamorphosed into significant and functional genes, my artwork reflects this mutation process of a gene. Imagine the gene spreading to the body which influences the mind as well. The sun, the moon, and the countless stars are expressed with the circular tea-dyed leather. I also installed lines between my works to symbolize human relationship on earth. Isn’t it true that nets of tangled and connected imageries are in one’s heart like the capillary vessels? The white threads I used symbolize a long-lived life. Art and culture overcome any difference between culture and age.
I have been using all types of techniques such as etching print making, tea performances, installation, mixed media painting, etc. to create my artworks. They display everything from my inner self, which were influenced by nature. From my thoughts to my sub-conscious ness, my hands reach for various media to share them with the world. The reason I begin every exhibition with my tea performance is because, you can find all of the aspects of Korean beauty at once. One tea performance can display both Korean art and culture at the same time through the background music, Hanbok, and tea manners.
I made a promise with myself, just like I created artwork for this exhibition, I will
keep creating my life story for my future. As a result of my departure from Korea and living as a Korean-American immigrant, I was given the opportunity to discover myself.
Sei Ryun Chun December 2015
Mutation
Artist Statement
My artwork is based on the awe-inspiring beauty of nature.
In nature, there are no straight lines.
Starting from small dots, lines, circles and planes -
these shapes were developed and altered to become volumetric curves forming circular beads.
The main materials for my artwork was made from a paper dough soaked in water.
The handmade paper mache beads were painted with an Asian black ink (muk)
with various dots of acrylic paint weaved by a wire.
Like water taken in by an organism and metamorphosed into significant
and functional genes, my artwork reflect this mutation process of a gene.
Imagine the gene spreading to the body which influences the mind as well.
Throughout your mind and body, meditation and optimism are being converted into electric thoughts and ideas. I am currently creating my own expressively mutated genes every single moment of my life.
Mutation
Artist Statement
My artwork is based on the awe-inspiring beauty of nature.
In nature, there are no straight lines.
Starting from small dots, lines, circles and planes -
these shapes were developed and altered to become volumetric curves forming circular beads.
The main materials for my artwork was made from a paper dough soaked in water.
The handmade paper mache beads were painted with an Asian black ink (muk)
with various dots of acrylic paint weaved by a wire.
Like water taken in by an organism and metamorphosed into significant
and functional genes, my artwork reflect this mutation process of a gene.
Imagine the gene spreading to the body which influences the mind as well.
Throughout your mind and body, meditation and optimism are being converted into electric thoughts and ideas. I am currently creating my own expressively mutated genes every single moment of my life.
OM 2015
The exhibition was focused on the theme of the round sky and rectangular earth, which I was working on for a very long time. The Korean mythologies are expressed in the round circles. I bottled the Eastern cultures and philosophies in my art work, as I wrote down my own stories in my diary. The dream of Utopia, which exists in both the East and West, was shown as a man and a woman sitting in Zen meditation. The sun, the moon, and the countless stars are expressed with the circular tea-dyed leather.
Korean characters, “you and I” are shown in the installation of the rectangular canvases on the wall. I wanted to communicate with my audience, using the holy words of Buddha, coming out from the sky and the earth (ㅇ.ㅁ). Every morning before I start on my artwork, I meditate, and drink tea. I put the tea leaves on the paper and watch the traces of the tea-dye in different forms every day, and I let my artwork be in the flow of time.
The media I used for the artwork in this exhibition were mixed-media, tea-dyed Korean drum leather, which verbalizes the circles of the Eastern culture, and CDs weaved with fishing string to articulate the digital culture and online connections between people in the present.
I expressed the connection between people with threads, and installed the drum leathers to let the sound of om spread throughout the gallery. I created Korean letters with BeoSeon (Korean socks), thread and needles, which symbolize feminism in Korea, and expressed the fragrance of tea and the beauty of humanity with paper flowers.
After teaching Korean Art and Culture to the Korean American students at the Korean School for twenty eight years, I realized that I learned so much from teaching the students. Art and culture overcome any difference between culture and age.
I made a promise with myself, just like I created artwork for this exhibition, I will keep on creating my life story for my future.
The exhibition was focused on the theme of the round sky and rectangular earth, which I was working on for a very long time. The Korean mythologies are expressed in the round circles. I bottled the Eastern cultures and philosophies in my art work, as I wrote down my own stories in my diary. The dream of Utopia, which exists in both the East and West, was shown as a man and a woman sitting in Zen meditation. The sun, the moon, and the countless stars are expressed with the circular tea-dyed leather.
Korean characters, “you and I” are shown in the installation of the rectangular canvases on the wall. I wanted to communicate with my audience, using the holy words of Buddha, coming out from the sky and the earth (ㅇ.ㅁ). Every morning before I start on my artwork, I meditate, and drink tea. I put the tea leaves on the paper and watch the traces of the tea-dye in different forms every day, and I let my artwork be in the flow of time.
The media I used for the artwork in this exhibition were mixed-media, tea-dyed Korean drum leather, which verbalizes the circles of the Eastern culture, and CDs weaved with fishing string to articulate the digital culture and online connections between people in the present.
I expressed the connection between people with threads, and installed the drum leathers to let the sound of om spread throughout the gallery. I created Korean letters with BeoSeon (Korean socks), thread and needles, which symbolize feminism in Korea, and expressed the fragrance of tea and the beauty of humanity with paper flowers.
After teaching Korean Art and Culture to the Korean American students at the Korean School for twenty eight years, I realized that I learned so much from teaching the students. Art and culture overcome any difference between culture and age.
I made a promise with myself, just like I created artwork for this exhibition, I will keep on creating my life story for my future.
The Fragrance of Tea 2013
“Sei Ryun Chun’s work reminds me of meditation. It’s like seeing her everyday life in her works. They are like her journals of her daily life. Use of tea leaves and other materials from nature gives a very calm and at the same time strong effects of nature.”
Myron J. Lewis, President Board of Directors of Belskie Museum
Whenever I drink a cup of tea, I close my eyes and smell its fragrance. The fragrance makes me calm and gives me
a natural energy. It allows me to meditate and concentrate on my art work. My mind becomes very clear and spiritual.
When I drink a tea, I also enjoy the loneliness. Even when it’s windy...raining...sunny...flowers blooming...I drink a tea and
enjoy all of nature. The most important time is a tea time. As chinese character, tea means grass, people, and tree. Tea includes everything. It is universal. Tea is my philosophy.
“Sei Ryun Chun’s work reminds me of meditation. It’s like seeing her everyday life in her works. They are like her journals of her daily life. Use of tea leaves and other materials from nature gives a very calm and at the same time strong effects of nature.”
Myron J. Lewis, President Board of Directors of Belskie Museum
Whenever I drink a cup of tea, I close my eyes and smell its fragrance. The fragrance makes me calm and gives me
a natural energy. It allows me to meditate and concentrate on my art work. My mind becomes very clear and spiritual.
When I drink a tea, I also enjoy the loneliness. Even when it’s windy...raining...sunny...flowers blooming...I drink a tea and
enjoy all of nature. The most important time is a tea time. As chinese character, tea means grass, people, and tree. Tea includes everything. It is universal. Tea is my philosophy.
Scent of Nostalgia 2010
For my artwork, I worked with a mixture of leather, paint, sand, shells and green tea.
Similar to when I worked on the ChoSun Women Series where I used the style of photo-etching on leather, I felt that the maternal love from the women was as soft as the buttery leather, where the unique personalities and perspectives of these women were shown.
After brewing some tea, I use the tea leaves and pour them on to paper, fabric and leather. I work with the traces of the tea leaves which display the flow of time, and this becomes my art. I incorporated the stars from the universe in my artwork, because I drink tea every day which cleanses my soul and I meditate to become one with nature.
The circle has no end and no beginning. The circle in essence keeps rotating endlessly and is eternal. Back in the day paper was only used as a canvas, ever since the beginning of human history up until the digital era of today. However, nowadays leather is used as well as paper as canvases. Countless dots represent time and tangled lines like a ball of thread complete a surface.
The heart of the microcosm within our body, which cannot even be touched or seen, was painted with abstract colors. Those billions of stars in the great universe were expressed by the installation on the wall as if we were able travel between them by a space shuttle.
For my artwork, I worked with a mixture of leather, paint, sand, shells and green tea.
Similar to when I worked on the ChoSun Women Series where I used the style of photo-etching on leather, I felt that the maternal love from the women was as soft as the buttery leather, where the unique personalities and perspectives of these women were shown.
After brewing some tea, I use the tea leaves and pour them on to paper, fabric and leather. I work with the traces of the tea leaves which display the flow of time, and this becomes my art. I incorporated the stars from the universe in my artwork, because I drink tea every day which cleanses my soul and I meditate to become one with nature.
The circle has no end and no beginning. The circle in essence keeps rotating endlessly and is eternal. Back in the day paper was only used as a canvas, ever since the beginning of human history up until the digital era of today. However, nowadays leather is used as well as paper as canvases. Countless dots represent time and tangled lines like a ball of thread complete a surface.
The heart of the microcosm within our body, which cannot even be touched or seen, was painted with abstract colors. Those billions of stars in the great universe were expressed by the installation on the wall as if we were able travel between them by a space shuttle.
