"Light leads, and objects follow"
"La lumière mène, les objets suivent"
Yong Rae Kwon combines industrial stainless steel with traditional painting methods, sculpting light and shadow.
Through meticulous grinding, polishing and assembly, her technique choreographs a ballet of reflections, creating a “painting” from metallic “pigments”. Kwon invokes the duality of burning passion within cold metal, capturing the ephemeral dance of twilight, a silent roar of light between day and night.
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Yong Rae Kwon associe l'acier inoxydable industriel aux méthodes de peinture traditionnelles, sculptant la lumière et l'ombre. Grâce à un meulage, un polissage et un assemblage méticuleux, sa technique chorégraphie un ballet de réflexion, créant une « peinture » à partir de « pigments » métalliques. Kwon invoque la dualité de la passion brûlante au sein du métal froid, capturant la danse éphémère du crépuscule, un rugissement silencieux de lumière entre le jour et la nuit.
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"My art is light.
I don't use light as a means for my light; the light itself is the essence and expression.
I don't try to represent light, but I try to house it. Human is a light of its own.
The humanity-its culture, history, and life-are light.
Light leads, and objects follow.
Stainless Steel, And Its Coldness and Hotness
Recently, I have been using stainless steel.
Stainless steel is cold. It is cool-headed.
And it is pure.
I like the coldness and straightforwardness of the stainless steel.
It is urban and modern and intellectual. I use the cold stainless steel in order to convey hotness.
Let’s take a look at the making process.
First, I grind and polish the stainless steel.
As a result, the steel becomes even more reflective and mirror-like than before.
I cut the product into smaller units.
I hammer the units.
Long and boring time passes.
The hard light that have been reflected onto the steel breaks with the loud noises of hammering. The light now is dispersed as it reflects from the hammered steel parts.
It’s a dancing time for light.
After the long and repetitive process, thousand units of steel are created.
The units become pigments of my work.
Thousands of cold units join the canvass to take on the illusions of hotness and passion.
This moment resembles sunset; this is the moment when material becomes an image.
Thus, my work is essentially a painting.
When I apply the steel units on my canvass, I feel the euphoria the painter feels when one paints."