I recently visited the solo show of a Korean artist who is currently studying at Kyoto city university of the Arts. The exhibition consisted of two dimensional works in monochrome, however, I felt as if it were a joint exhibition of two artists because the show consisted of two styles that were clearly distinguishable from one other. I have recognised this tendency before, and it seems to me that the artist should seek her own expression by keeping the two styles side by side.
On the one hand Bae's work consisted of a black velvet cloth on which she drew faint white lines tightly together, like grassland, to create a unique depth from the space left unmarked on the velvet. She developed this style gently and gradually, with the occasional use of a smudging or blurring effect, which acted to integrate the velvet’s own glamour and depth into her style, yet without indulging in it.
On the other hand, her canvas works works were created using strong thick lines, like streams of charcoal and Chinese ink . This black flow, and its contrasting qualities to the velvet works, creates knots, sometimes spreading out over the plains of the canvas and rejoining to gather in to pockets of black depth. The feature of this style is one of active and inherent power, and is much in contrast to the style of the velvet works, which could be described as static and delicate.
Despite the risk of her early works developing in to a somewhat mannered style, Bae has displayed an outstanding progress, and this exhibition certainly attracted my attention, raising the question of whether these two styles might be integrated in the future, or not.