Split by Shon Shin Kyu
Updated: Dec 10, 2019
The reason to conflict and divide two materials of wood and mirror stainless in this work is not to simply acquire aesthetic beauty but to fuse distinctive features of each material. We see natural beauty of curves in Korean traditional housings. The wood used was from a pine tree which was actually used as a main pillar of a Korean traditional house and it represents the natural beauty of curve of Korea. The other material, Stainless Mirror, expresses Western beauty of being straightforward and manmade.
Kyu had cherished his own distinctive and gorgeous Korean beauty until Chosun dynasty. However, through the period of unstable Japanese colonial era, somewhat radial Western influences were prevalent and thus, there have been some occasions lacking in balance in cultural aspect so far. In case of Japan, they had sufficient time to blend Western culture and that of theirs so that they could keep their identity and accept new Western design, thereby go on a complementary development.
Yet, he has tried to understand modern Korean people about the traditional Korean design by drawing the traditional beauty of the past. Korean design is not completely fused with the Western one. However, these two materials of wood and stainless steel, which were not tangible as separate entity, can be expressed as one beautiful aesthetic quality by conflicting and dividing.
