As a young and adventurous lad, Ki hoon Park often played with and cared for the abandoned dogs at his grandmother’s farm. Once a child of nature, he still recalls the anxiety that engulfed him when stepping foot in the frantic Seoul metropolis for the first time. To ease the stress, he started to project his personal battles with unfamiliarity and uncertainty onto the animals that appeared in his engravings. Ki Hoon’s out-of-place creatures came to symbolize the alienating forces of modern life, and before long, a grander narrative of coexistence began to take shape and ultimately define his body of work.

Ki Hoon repeatedly applies and dries layers of colored paint to the canvas before any engraving begins. By varying the depth and strength as he carves, the image he has in mind gradually reveals itself through the leftover color. Having benchmarked the idea from the mezzotint process, he starts from the surface of the dark canvas and carves into the lighter areas with extreme care. Eventually, the engraving plate bears the traces of the carving knife. Like physical wounds, the residue of the process parallels the visceral pain of Ki Hoon and his animals as the sprawling city consumes the sacred habitats they once called home.

Coexistence - 2109 (2021). Engraving on Canvas. 91 x 91cm.

Coexistence - 1919 (2019). Engraving on Canvas. 100 x 135cm.

Coexistence 2007 (2020). Engraving on Canvas. 70 x 162.2cm.

Coexistence 2008 (2020). Engraving on Canvas. 95cm x 120cm.

Coexistence - 2108 (2021). Engraving on Canvas. 72.7 x 90.9cm.

Coexistence 1611 (2016). Engraving on Canvas. 227.3 x 181.8cm.

Discover more of Ki Hoon’s works in Issue 3 of our magazine!