AGE HOPPING: 이호진

Artist statement

Through this work, I hope to find the point of contact between the two extremes: images that can tell a story and visual expression within the realm of painting. Most of the shapes that appear in the center of the screen are images of unclear age and gender, combining memories and experiences from my past and images influenced by the present. In the background, a combination of different images overlaps in a complex manner to create another environment and story. Within the works, a world of each strange dimension is formed. It may be our own psychological state, which may be the same every day but change every hour, or it may be an environment where phenomenal appearances and minds are intertwined, or an ideal dreamed while drunk. Through these spaces where many things are intertwined and collide at the same time, I try to reveal the dual energy and breathing vitality that can be strong and rough, yet soft at the same time.

 

I always work as if at a feast with the flow of energy floating around from unclear viewpoints. The free temperament revealed through repeated yet uneven shapes and colors in my work is like the complex wandering soul of wild animals and modern people. It simultaneously reflects issues about our reality and the world beyond reality, and on the other hand, it is also my own story of experiencing and pursuing extremely different phenomena at the same time. This space, where touching memories of the past and the current wavering human nature are intertwined, contains my efforts and expectations for movement to the next dimension. The exhibition title “AGE HOPPING” reflects all of this. It does not simply refer to “AGE” and “HOPPING”, but to the problems of human nature that always coexist across eras and domains, the limp, wounds or disabilities of my own imperfect self, and all conditions. It means a feast that can be enjoyed willingly.