마지막 편지 Last letter

Silent words ● In the process of painting, Kwon first takes photos, then makes a draft based on the photos and finally paint it on canvas with oil. Particular reality emerges through this process by overlapping the reality by the photos with an artist's imaginary touch. This painting method, however, is not so uncommon in the field of recent contemporary painting. Although Kwon is excellent in representing above particular realism, her works are more impressive in that describing rather simple but strong "Portrait" attaching a symbolic item, the white bandage, to the faces and naked bodies of the boys and girls.

권경엽_Chamber of memory_캔버스에 유채_91×116.8cm_2010

권경엽_Solitude_캔버스에 유채_91×116.8cm_2010

권경엽_Eternity_캔버스에 유채_91×116.8cm_2010

권경엽_Moments_캔버스에 유채_97×162.2cm_2008

An innocent look looking back us between the bandage and a fragile naked body bandaged all over are telling us without words how they have been struggling with their trauma experienced in the past and still flashbacking vividly as yet. The reason why Kwon depicts so called "Portrait"might be that as trauma is imprinted on our body and impossible to describe it by words, the artist cannot but express it by the look of the eyes and the naked bodies bandaged. And the white bandage seems an indispensable item to purify the bodies and minds. The bandage color "white"is, however, a symbol of self-extinction as well as that of healing. Looking at Kwon's paintings, as a result, we always feel something unsettling and the shadow of death along with a hope of recovering from trauma.

권경엽_Lost_캔버스에 유채_80×116.8cm_2009

권경엽_Childhood__캔버스에 유채_72×91cm_2009

When we summarize our life as Eros according to Freud, and needless to say the abusers who gave trauma to the young girls and boys were driven by Eros, self-extinction indicate one other desire within us, Thanatos. By Freud, Eros and Thanatos are the fundamental desires which drive us till death. So we might say that Kwon does not simply depict the struggle of traumatized adolescent boys and girls but has been trying to depict our life itself symbolically on canvas. ■ Hikaru Morioka

Vol.20100508a | 권경엽展 / KWONKYUNGYUP / 權慶燁 / painting