I walk along the perimeter of the US Garrison in the Young-san district. I can see a portion of the US army base from my apartment window but I cannot get inside.
It is a place of secret stories. The US Garrison uses a California zip code and a US national phone number. The office of the commander is called the White House.
My observation of the local environment begins by walking. Walking through geographic territories can be political, social, and personal. For the past year, my painting practice has focused on exploring the psychogeography of space through the depiction of the barrier of the US Garrison, located in the Young-san district in South Korea. Living for ten years in Seoul, I observed the military drills from my window. The US Garrison remained long after World War II as a reminder of the global military industrial complex.
I embody my subjective experience and project my physical reaction upon the canvas. The act of painting is important because the slow process of applying paint on canvas allows for a revelation of hidden moments. The contrast of colors, black and lavender, indigo blue and beige, viridian green and sky blue, is crucial to convey the psychological tension. There is a directness when I paint, a visceral encounter with history. Although the roughly applied directional brushstrokes emphasize the flatness of the pictorial surface, they also create a subjective psychological space of memory. The act of erasure, concealment, and obstruction of the painted elements on the canvas provides ambiguity.