Fusion of the Oriental Mind and the Western Material: Art of Meeok Paik
Sae-Kwan, Oh
of Meeok Paik contained images of nature, with vague and deliberate references
to their sources. Paik’
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>s approach to the nature began to
turn towards a more active approach, leading her to move into Abstract
Expressionistic gestures that emphasized the use of pigment and media more than
figurative images. Her recent works testify to this further step toward the
ultimate state of abstraction where a single hue can fill the entire canvas.
Paik
paints the overall space of her canvas with a series of monochromatic colors,
sometimes juxtaposing two contrasting color fields. She also takes a bolder
approach in works where five traditional Oriental [can you use the work
Oriental anymore when talking about anything but carpets?] colors like ultra
marine, white, yellow ocher, carmine red and black (Translator
lang=KO style=’font-size:8.0pt’>’s note: these colors are associated in Asian folklore with
strong symbolic, myth power) are arrayed in one canvas. A certain strategy in
her monochromatic paintings is that they tend to create a mood of simplicity
and tranquility, whereas the multi-chromatic paintings take the utmost use of
dynamic energy and tension with the collision and reconciliation of coexisting
colors.
She starts
by building dyed layers of fabric on the canvas. Pigment is soaked into each
linen layer, which builds up the layers of color as well. Then she scratches
the overall surface of the fabric with blunt-edged knifes and various sizes of
wooden bars. Throughout this process, she enlivens the material to create a
rich texture. The color layers not only show the materiality of the work but
also the passage of time and natural mechanism. (Translator
lang=KO style=’font-size:8.0pt’>’s note: Paik produces her color by her own unique way,
first by mixing the pigment powder and acrylic then pouring the water into the mixture
and letting the color oozed and condense from the mixture for three, five or
ten days. The oozing period produces subtle gradation of one hue. Interestingly
enough, her ingredients are chemical and artificial, but the processing to
extract a color from them is totally natural.) The repetitive process of
accumulation and scratching, with most of the colors oozing from the pigment
mixture, enables the viewer to feel the natural presence of the work as if the
material expressed itself without any intervention from the artist
lang=KO style=’font-size:8.0pt’>’s intention.
Paik
lang=KO style=’font-size:8.0pt’>’s oeuvre seems to originate from a natural combination of
the East and the West, with the philosophy of the mind from the East and
concrete material from the West. Since she does not simply cover the surface
with the paint, instead she puts the pigment on the top of cotton and linen and
waits the liquid absorbed into the fabric, her process is like the method in
oriental painting where black ink seeps into paper, bringing two different
materials together.
The sheer
materiality sensed in Meeok Paik’
style=’font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Verdana’>s work from the accumulated pigment
layers and rough texture maintains a controlled balance. Also present is
Eastern thought, which is felt from the natural oozing of the pigment and the
use of traditional Oriental [??] colors.
