Peering through the pane of her studio window, Insue Kim’s gaze alighted upon an entrancing trail, an alluring thread that wove its way to Mt. Morak and onward to the sprawling Baegun lake beyond. From Inje birch forest to Namhae Boriam hermitage, she embarked upon a solitary sojourn, traversing storied landscapes and releasing her spirit amidst the very heartbeats of Korean nature.

As echoes resonating from the woods, Insue’s sketches transfigure her studio into a realm of the transcendent, an ethereal space where energies pulse, flow, and reverberate eternally. Rather than mimic the visible world, she distills the essence of arboreal presence into her canvas, molding the forest’s forms to mirror her mood. Guided by her conceptual cartography, she orchestrates intricate arboreal vignettes upon hanji, etching the black ink and overlapping the delicate sheets as she goes. Soon, her canvas lends itself to fits of spontaneity, begetting the wondrous imperfections that infuse her creations with an untamed sense of beauty.

For those encased within the urban sprawl, Insue’s compositions bestow generous expanses of untouched canvas, realms of void where the zephyrs twirl and the heavens unfurl. In these sublime interstices, her art channels the very fluidity of the wind, emulating the celestial vastness above. With each stroke, each omission, her hand inscribes an ode to the divine interplay between space and form, encouraging us to transcend the concreteness of the mundane, and move to the healing cadence of nature’s melodic tune.

Time Perspective (2016). Ink Wash on Hanji. 163x130cm.

Mindset (2016). Ink Wash on Hanji. 70 x 131cm.

Querencia (2020). Ink Wash on Hanji. 61x91cm.

Silent Power (2019). Ink Wash on Hanji. 130x97cm.

Silent Power (2016). Ink Wash on Hanji. 130x97cm.

Comfort (2015). Ink Wash on Hanji. 100x70cm.

Loop (2018). Ink Wash on Hanji. 163x130cm.

Discover more of Insue’s works in Issue 1 of our magazine!