Developing New Worlds: Creating through Uncanny Encounters in the Uncanished Workld from Ji Eun Cheon
Interview By Sooa Lim​​
1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background as an artist?
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I am an interdisciplinary artist who focuses on installation art, integrating drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Through my practice, I explore the paradoxical experiences between the conscious and subconscious.
World-building is my main methodology as well as the most exciting and accomplishing aspect of my works. I create a fictional world between consciousness and subconsciousness, designated Uncanished Workld, a portmanteau of ‘uncanny world’ and ‘unfinished work.’ This world is represented through literary format, with each drawing or sculpture serving as a word or sentence in the story. I coin specific terms for my fictional world. For example, I describe my paradoxical experiences as the ‘tacit noise,’ not referring to actual noises or auditory hallucinations, but to internal tumults. The story of the Uncanished Workld is my journey of discovering the nature of these tacit noises.
2. Does your identity as an Asian inform your art, or do you think it's not particularly relevant?
In my works, I refer to concepts from Eastern traditional painting and Buddhism. However, the reason why I bring those concepts to my work is not that I am Asian, but that those concepts have connections with the theme of my works. For example, I used the idea of “blank,” one of the main concepts of Eastern traditional painting, to contrast, and therefore exaggerate, my elaborated and obsessive pen drawings or paintings. Meanwhile, I intend those empty spaces to leave room for ‘tacit noise.’
When I try to come up idea of the fictional time-space and look up the concepts of physics, I realized that the basic ideas of Buddhism and contemporary physics are similar despite their different ways to reach those core concepts. I also believe that the combination of Buddhism with other cultures’ concepts might help my viewers better understand and sympathize with my works.
3. What themes or messages do you aim to convey through your art?
My works represent the process of asceticism, the neurotic and repetitive self-control practices that paradoxically originates from inner conflicts and results in inner stability. ‘Tacit noise,’ which represents my intangible experiences, disturbs me, because it stems from my complex inner hatred, and it is hard to control or get rid of. I choose to face it with my own visual language and convert the experiences of ‘tacit noise’ into the fictional narrative titled Uncanished Workld.
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Through my works, I find the ways to vividly recreate the feeling of ‘tacit noise,’ and most of those ways require a lot of time and energy. For Instance, I choose the pen liners as one of my main media because the sense of the sharp tips scratching the surface allows me to handle the ambiguity of ‘tacit noise’ by articulating it in my own visual language.
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In this process, I am playing tug-of war with ‘tacit noise,’ where I aim to retain my sense of agency and obtain inner peace. Thus, one can witness extreme tension and obsession in my work, as well as firmness and stability born from the tension and obsession. I hope viewers can reexperience and sympathize with my ascetic battle with tacit noise.
4. How do you approach a new artwork, from concept to completion?
I usually collect the materials from objects and places which remind me of ‘tacit noise,’ and feel the paradoxical sensibility comes from incompatible factors. These materials mostly are inanimate beings, but somehow they feel alive. For example, beef, which is from slaughtered animal, its muscle tissues still seemingly pulsing, gives me the uncanny sense of ‘tacit noise.’ So, I mindfully collect them, and then choose from them when I start a new work.
After selecting from these materials, I set up concepts for my fictional stories, such as character design and environment settings, which become the main visual factors of my work. Meanwhile, I look up the information from other field as needed to further develop concepts of the work.
Finally, I complete the work in its physical forms and visual effects. However, I leave the concept of the work unfinished in order to leave some possibilities for the next work, as Uncanished Workld should be never ending story. Therefore, conceptually, all my work series are not finished, and there will be subsequent versions of each work series.
5. What inspires your artwork, and how does your environment influence your creative process?
My works are inspired by moments when I encounter places or objects that give me the subtle paradoxical experiences. Usually, these experiences are indescribable in words, but in the heat of those moments, I am convinced that expressing those experiences is possible through my artwork.
For example, when I visited Green Wood Cemetery, ‘tacit noise’ echoed within me. I used to think it was impossible for others to understand and sympathize with my ineffable feelings, but then it occurred me that I might be able to communicate my feelings by recreating my experience in these specific places in my works. The monumental architectures in these places are rational and orderly, but my feelings unintelligible and chaotic. Thus, I choose Green Wood Cemetery for my latest work series titled Origami Hermit Crab, as a main visual factors.
6. What challenges have you faced as an artist, and how have you overcome them?
There are a lot of challenges I face as an artist, but the biggest challenge for me is organizing and summarizing my artwork concepts in words. I intend my works and concepts to be super complicated, but the complexity causes me to struggle to explain the concepts behind my works. Therefore, I try to categorize layers of culture and theoretical references in my works, summarize them in the overall themes of my works, and connect them to my specific experiences. Honestly, I am still dealing with this challenge, and I try to get alternative perspectives from my peers whenever I can present my work.
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7. Can you describe your daily routine as an artist? What practices or habits are essential to your creative process?
Unlike other occupations, artists usually do not have specific working time and resting time. Therefore, most artists, including me, have flexible schedules.
An artist is like a marathoner. It is essential to have our own pace and persist over time. Devotion to creating artworks is the most important, but it is necessary to take care physical and mental health along the way.
In my case, I set a strict working schedule like other vocations might have because my works are usually long-term projects, and they require a great amount of commitment. I usually arrive at my studio around 9 am and finish working around 6 pm. On Saturday or Sunday, I take one day break from my works and refresh myself. I spend that day going to the exhibitions I want to see, or just going somewhere unrelated to art.
Artists tend to develop problems in their necks and shoulders, and I am no exception. Therefore, I work out three times a week and go to an acupuncture place to get medical checks and massages once a week.
8. What upcoming artworks, projects, or exhibitions are you currently working on?
I am still working on Origami Hermit Crab and coming up idea of the sculptures of that work series. Each of work unit consists of one textile piece and sculptures, and four units of work are required to complete the installation. I am stuck on the material and technical problem now, but in the end, this series will come together next year. Also, I am working on one of my work series titled Meet Flower. Meet Flower is the first work series of Uncanished Workld from 2015 to 2017, and now I try to revise most of the visual forms and concept of this work. So these two work series are basically my MFA thesis project at School of Visual Arts, and I will exhibit these pieces as soon as I have the opportunity to.
Chief Editor Paris Koh