Color as Adjective—Red, Blue, Green

Until now, I have explored color as adjective to describe my subjective and unclear emotions. The relationship between color and emotion recorded over the ten years since my first attempt in 2012 can experiment with various color relationships depending on what concept is established.

The first thing that came to mind as color as adjective—noun is beauty. Modern Korean society is volatile and dynamic, but my personal life as an artist, as shown by color as adjective, was sometimes joyful but mostly filled with uncomfortable and depressing experiences. Moments of joy scatter briefly in the air, and melancholy rises from deep within. Anger blurs vision as if dyeing it red, and anxiety about the future spreads throughout the body, offering sleepless nights.

When I looked back at the approximately 370 colors as adjectives recorded in this way, the color-beauty I had been trying to find was there. Painful, wistful, hopeless, foolish, kind, and sometimes peaceful daily life. The combination of emotions I could feel because I am alive and colors I could see with my heart—beauty.

This time, I exhibit the nouns red, blue, and green that explore the essence of color.

Colors appear different according to light. They also appear different depending on who looks at them and when. What is important to me is not the exploration of color as a physical property, but how it feels to me now. This feeling is very fluid, unclear, and ambiguous. That’s why it’s an adjective. The relationship between color and emotion created in this way is defined as red, blue, and green. This definition is one that can change in the future; it is a definition up to the present.

For me over the past ten years, [Red] has been the color of pretty, voluptuous, desperate, fortunate, stimulated, hot, moving, enthusiastic, ecstatic, heartbreaking, disgusting, and tingling.

For me over the past ten years, [Blue] has been the color of clear, curious, envious, dignified, reverent, wondrous, solemn, noble, lonely, unfamiliar, chilly, and noisy.

For me over the past ten years, [Green] has been the color of abundant, spine-chilling, grotesque, fresh, calm, refreshing, strong, rich, excessive, anxious, regretful, and resilient.

Three Horizontal Configurations Three Vertical Configurations for Horizontal

I wanted to find psychological equilibrium through the delicate transition process of emotion-color. The horizontal is that for me. The vertical also exists for the horizontal.

Drawing Wall

Whenever I receive new inspiration, I first work on paper. When it is completed to my satisfaction, the work on paper is transferred to canvas, larger and more delicately. Sometimes the work on paper alone is sufficient, and in some cases I work directly on canvas without going through paper work.

Work on paper is therefore like the raw material of that moment when I received inspiration. I feel freedom while working because I can do all the experiments I want without being bound by material costs.