Incheon, b. unknown

This work begins from the wall that individuals inevitably confront while living in reality. The feeling of wanting to do something for someone, yet realizing that there is almost nothing one can actually do, generates a sense of frustration that takes the form of longing. However, this longing does not function as consolation; instead, it remains as a persistent irritation, scratching at a corner of the mind. This longing cannot be grasped. It feels too distant, approaching as an illusion seemingly unrelated to oneself. And yet, the act of wishing—like clinging to someone’s pant leg—offers no comfort. There is an unease, as if one is yearning for something that should not be desired. This contradictory state forms the emotional point of departure for the work. This feeling recalls a scene from the film Parasite, in which the protagonist imagines that one day he will buy the house and reunite with his father. That desire is less a form of hope than a fantasy rendered all the more tragic by its distance from reality. This work remains within precisely such a state of “answerless longing.” The project focuses on the imagery of talismans believed to ward off misfortune and invite good fortune. Traditional auspicious symbols such as the Seven-Star Horse, the three-legged crow, and the pig appear through repetitive stitching and drawing. Yet these images do not promise protection or comfort; rather, they resemble gestures of excessive desperation. They are less acts of faith than attempts to forcibly grasp and summon something at all costs. The accumulated labor of the hand on soft, fragile materials fixes longing into material form, but the belief that it might actually be effective never reaches completion. This work is not an act of praying for fortune, but a revelation of the state of being compelled to long for it. What scratches is not the surface, but the mind.