k-exhibition
A Life in Miniature
Experience a delicate balance of self-discovery and cultural memory with Kyoto-based artist, Jeyoon Ryu.
k-exhibition
A Life in Miniature
Experience a delicate balance of self-discovery and cultural memory with Kyoto-based artist, Jeyoon Ryu.
During the pandemic, Korean born, Kyoto-based artist Jeyoon Ryu was isolated from his Korean homeland for three tumultuous years. Feeling disconnected from his Korean roots, his sense of self began to fracture, and a complex torrent of nostalgia, incomprehension, and loneliness came flooding in. Like a paper boat swept into foreign waters, his works emerged from a sincere desire to quell the chaos all around. Through art, he was able to alleviate the anxiety and break free from the rigidity of rules and compulsion. Over time, he brought to the surface a host of avatars hidden within, re-imagining them with their own unique forms and colors.
Inspired by Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, Jeyoon visualized his inner realm as a “world of stars, a chaos of all forms, stages, heredity, and possibility.” By painting his everyday emotional impulses and impressions on the surface of ceramics, he captures the layers of a life in flux as they accumulate, amalgamate, and imprint themselves on his physical body and soul. Indeed, his self-portraits constitute a personal journey of discovery and a quest to explore who he is, where he comes from, and where exactly he is going in this life.
Recently, Jeyoon participated in a solidarity-building exhibition held by the social welfare organization, Kokoro no Kazoku (Family of the Heart). Situated at a nursing home in Kyoto’s Gujō neighborhood, the goal of the exhibition was to strike up intimate conversations between individuals with Korean ties. During the event, Jeyoon encountered an 80-year-old woman who was born in Seoul during the Japanese colonial period, and lived there up until the third grade of elementary school. For her, Jeyoon’s depiction of a traditional Japanese torii gate conjured up poignant memories of the now demolished Chōsen Shrine, an expression of Shintoism as well as Japanization efforts following the annexation of Korea in 1910. In particular, it reminded her of the times she visited the shrine and endured a sense of turmoil as exuberant memories of youth entangled with a lingering sadness and oppression in the present. In many respects, the words of this woman offered Jeyoon a glimmer of hope, reminding him that while hatred persists, it will never be universal, not even in the darkest of hours.
Jeyoon’s works draw upon the late O-young Lee’s text, Small is Better, in particular a section about Kobitobanashi, or Japanese dwarf stories featuring characters such as Issun-Boshi, Momotaro, and Kintaro. He is also influenced by Astro Boy, a cartoon protagonist who endeavors to save the world from evil forces against the odds. As well as representing Japan’s island mentality, post-WWII aspirations, and historical willingness to rage against enormous goblin-esque foes, these fictional reference points reflect Jeyoon’s desire to smile, protect, and love those around him, irrespective of the lofty linguistic and cultural barriers that permeate his life.
In terms of process, coiling is a pottery technique in which original forms are stacked individually prior to being pinched and glued together by hand. For Jeyoon, the act of coiling mirrors the frustrations, concerns, and hardships that accumulate across a lifespan in a way that makes us who we are. As ceramics, these accumulations possess a fragile inner shell that is susceptible to fractures during the production process. In the words of Hesse, “If the chick is not able to break the shell of his egg, he will die without being born.” Similarly, it is only by collapsing, breaking, and splitting in the kiln that Jeyoon’s self-portraits can transcend vulnerability and manifest an array of new and unexpected forms.
Undeniably, Jeyoon has been deeply wounded by misunderstandings, stigma, and discrimination while living in Japan. Nonetheless, by sinking to rock bottom and essentially miniaturizing anew, he has been able to pick up the fragments of his broken bones, heal, and reinvent himself as the glorious hero of his own narrative he so longed to be.
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