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Blue Cherry Blossom

Blue Cherry Blossom_Oil on Canvas_100x150cm_2024

Resonance of Two Worlds: Between Painting and Ceramic Forest

My work is anchored by two pillars: painting, rooted in East Asian aesthetics, and ceramics, which reflects my lived experience of "otherness" in Germany.

The Aesthetics of Infiltration and Relationship : Both mediums explore the harmony between the individual and society. If the blue cherry blossoms in my paintings represent a quiet infiltration (Infusio) into a foreign culture, the ceramic forest series illustrates how thousands of small pieces overlap and lean on one another to form a collective whole. It is a continuous inquiry into how I, as a stranger, can communicate and achieve harmony with the people around me.

Asian Lyrically and German Alienation : My paintings more directly express my Asian heritage and lyrical identity through the depth of Ultramarine. In contrast, the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) series began with a sense of alienation I felt when encountering the German landscape. The densely packed spruce monocultures felt like the rigid and unfamiliar social structures I encountered in German cities.

Beyond the Sea: The Blue Cherry Blossom

The blue cherry blossoms in my work embody the paradox between the fleeting moment and permanence. My choice of Ultramarine is deeply intentional, echoing its etymological root—ultra marinus, or "beyond the sea." It serves as a visual metaphor for my personal journey of migrating from East Asia to Europe.

While the cherry blossom is often reduced to a mere exotic ornament in the West, painting them in blue allows me to deconstruct these cultural imprints and liberate the subject from rigid symbolism. These blue blossoms represent a neutral zone—a space where reality meets sensory perception, and where my identity as a migrant bridges two different worlds. Like petals in the wind, they vanish yet remain, leaving a pulsating presence within the breathing void of the canvas.

Blue Cherry Blossom_Oil on canvas_100x130cm_2024

Blue Cherry Blossom_Oil on Canvas_200x200cm_2015

Blue Cherry Blossom_Oil on Canvas_200x160cm_2023

Blue Cherry Blossom_Oil on Canvas_100x100cm_2025

NEMO: The Geometry of a Fragmented Presence

The work NEMO explores a linguistic threshold: in Korean, "Nemo" means a square; in Latin, it means "nobody." This ceramic cube—stable, rational, and white—embodies the rigid cultural structures of the West. Yet, across its surface, blue cherry blossoms in Ultramarine ("beyond the sea") quietly seep in—a process of Infusio.

A tiny triangular opening at the top invites the viewer to imagine a function, such as a vase or a vessel. While I embrace this possibility, the triangle carries a more profound symbolism for me: it is exactly half of a square. It represents my identity as one who has crossed the vast blue, feeling as though I am only "half-seen" or partially perceived in a foreign land.

While the world is physically round, for a voyager between worlds, it often feels like a sharp, angular square. NEMOcaptures the solitude of being a "nobody" within a solid system, yet it also celebrates the quiet persistence of cultural permeability. The blue blossoms growing from the cracks of the cube are traces of an identity that refuses to be invisible, blooming in the interstices of a structured world.