Eunsi Jo visualizes the concept of resemblance through a system of pictorial signs. Her paintings do not remain at the level of depicting landscapes or objects; rather, they engage in intellectual play through symbols, geometry, and linguistic wit. Resemblance here does not merely denote external similarity but functions as an internal order or relational structure, hinting at a new kind of logic that transcends reason. Her paintings rarely declare meaning directly—instead, they suggest it through indirect, fragmented signs, prompting viewers to collect clues, infer rules, and construct causal relations on their own.

This essay discusses how the structures of resemblance that Jo explores in her solo exhibition 《Twin Flame》(2025, YK Presents) connect with invisible systems and forces. The exhibition title, Twin Flame, literally meaning “twin fire,” derives from the belief that a single soul divides into two separate beings who reflect one another like mirrors. Jo, who has developed her artistic thinking through painting and painting-based installations, uses this term not only to allude to the destiny of creation she bears as an artist, but also to suggest the originating event or catalyst of her intellectual inquiry, as well as the artistic essence she seeks to attain. Most importantly, “Twin Flame” embodies her intent to visualize the resonant state in which individual and collective entities interact through resemblance and inevitable connection.

Within the exhibition, motifs such as mountains, seas, rain, waves, wind, trees, and stones—elements associated with nature—intermingle with dots, circles, straight lines, curves, and other geometric figures and symbols. Some works are painted on canvas, but more are executed on plywood panels. Across these plywood supports, various forms establish relationships of correspondence, proportion, and permutation, producing a richly composed order that unfolds panoramically along the pure white walls and diamond-shaped floor of the gallery. No single work stands out; instead, all are displayed with equal presence.

Here, the materiality of plywood, serving as both support and sculptural body, becomes pronounced. The differences among plywood, oil paint, brushstrokes, and drawn lines connect the works beyond the visual level. From afar, a quiet order emerges; up close, subtle variations and repetitions form delicate rhythms.

Near the entrance of the exhibition stands A Methodological Approach(2025), which is not a simple depiction of a landscape but a visualization of the very method through which the artist perceives and constructs the world. The mountain at the center of the canvas is rendered relatively realistically, resembling an actual mountain; beneath it are linear drawings, while above it a red triangle echoes the central mountain’s form, creating a comprehensive resemblance. Superimposed Fibonacci divisions, spirals, and other geometric elements organize this visual representation into a mathematical structure of likeness—a structural resemblance rather than mere imitation.

The word “methodological” in the title implies a framework of cognition—an interpretive mode of understanding the composition of painting itself. On the right side of the work, a small canvas mirrors yet differs from the larger one, prompting reflection on how images can circulate and become diagrammatic through juxtaposition. Jo is less concerned with making the two canvases appear visually similar than with showing that resemblance is not a visual property but a mode of perception. The resemblance we perceive between the two is not fully describable in language; rather, by introducing differences in form, sign, rule, proportion, and repetition, she compels us to contemplate the very range within which resemblance operates.

Works such as Parallel Worlds(2025), Large and Small Things(2025), Nine Tenths(2025), and Three Brothers(2025) each deploy mathematical or analytical frameworks at different levels to construct resemblance. Viewers infer relationships of shape, line, and position, imagining the underlying structural logic. For instance, Large and Small Things juxtaposes the vast water of the sea with the small amount held in a bucket, while triangles and tripods suggest numerical repetition. Curved lines traversing the two canvases energize the pictorial surface and appear to visualize the trajectories of motion—perhaps of wind, waves, or droplets.

This work disperses interpretation across elements: the sea waves at the center, the buckets and tripods above and below, and the sharp triangles and sweeping curves whose relations remain indeterminate. The coexistence of realistic depiction and schematic graphics recalls the interfaces of digital applications or games, with which we are familiar.

In digital game UI design, realistic backgrounds enhance immersion while icons and quest structures are diagrammatically represented for clarity. Different image types coexist within a single frame without discord because of the synthetic nature of the medium. Painting, though the oldest medium, need not be exempt from such hybrid logic. Thus, Jo’s Large and Small Things effectively turns the very structure of presentation and interpretation into the subject of the painting itself.

Conversely, works such as Chronicles of the Earth(2025) and Inertial Attitude(2025) approach installation more than painting. Their titles function as linguistic cues for perception. The phrase Chronicles of the Earth suggests an accumulation of time (chronicle) and place (beneath the earth), combining the invisible space of the underground with temporal order to evoke the layered traces of past events, like geological strata.

Inertial Attitude invokes the physics of inertia but expands its meaning through the word “attitude,” into ethical, psychological, and philosophical domains. The swing motif implies pendular motion, serving as a visual device of inertia. On the swing seat rests a small painting, depicting on its front and back images resembling the sun and the moon—symbols of tidal forces and the invisible systems that sustain cosmic order.

The suggestion of unseen systems and structures is deeply resonant with today’s digital interfaces that shape our behavioral patterns. During activities such as searching, consuming, recording, storing, or entertainment, we subconsciously grasp the difficulty level of these invisible systems through repeated interaction.

Jo’s paintings are contemporary not only because they depict resemblance in form but because they suggest the structural conditions and orders in which such likeness operates. Resemblance in her work is not about similarity of shape; it functions as a framework for sensing and thinking invisible relationships.

Her paintings activate processes of reflection on the pictorial surface, leading from representation to structural awareness, from depiction to relational implication. For Jo, resemblance is not a matter of visual analogy but a methodological framework that reveals structures of perception and thought—a generative force in painting itself. Through this concept of similarity, she explores new connections between knowledge and sensation, between the world and the image, within the enduring medium of painting.

References

• [비평] 개인전 《트윈 플레임(Twin Flame)》 비평: 조은시 회화에서 닮음의 구조와 징후
  [Critique] Solo Exhibition 《Twin Flame》(2025): Structures and Signs of Resemblance in the Paintings of Eunsi Jo