Installation view of 《Complete Association》 (SHIFT, 2020) ©Joo Hyeongjoon

[Artist Note]

My work is a reconstruction of the anxiety that arises from reality and manifests through dreams. This expression takes the form of dividing the composition into multiple sections, creating artificial voids in which both viewer and artist imagine distinct scenes, thereby inviting a new interpretation of spatial experience. I have sought to extend the pictorial space beyond the frame, guiding the viewer to infer the transitions between cuts and to fill in the gaps—an act of perception through which we comprehend the whole from the parts.

The voids within the painting serve multiple roles. In the contemporary context, viewers will naturally project imagined processes into the artificial voids I have created, intuitively recognizing the results. I aim to draw the viewer’s imagination into the painting itself, allowing them to complete the work. I interpret the notion of “void” inherited from classical painting traditions as a device for complete association.

For me, a good painting is one that conveys the artist’s emotion and sensibility. There always exists a gap between the image one observes and the form one represents. When that gap is filled with the artist’s own language, the work becomes charged with emotion. To bridge that gap, an artist constantly moves their hand, and within that motion, their unique visual language emerges. If different artists were to depict the same subject, each would fill the gap in their own way, expressing distinct sensibilities.

Then, if the gap were to grow even wider, would the artist’s language become more pronounced? Could that make it a better painting? This question led me to reconsider my attitude toward painting itself.

Installation view of 《Complete Association》 (SHIFT, 2020) ©Joo Hyeongjoon

Out of this inquiry, I began searching for subjects where that perceptual gap could reach its maximum—and in 2018, I started recording my dreams. A dream, fleetingly observed and partially remembered, offers the widest possible gap for re-creation. To capture it, I write it down immediately after waking.

An individual’s attitude toward dreams can be influenced by culture, education, and religious beliefs, and the meaning or reason for dreaming is often determined by one’s emotions in reality. Anxiety stored in the unconscious manifests within dreams during deep sleep.

The imagery born from such anxiety intermingles with fragments of memory, forming hybrid scenes. These dreams, therefore, are expressions of anxiety—defensive mechanisms that arise to relieve psychological distress.

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