Arirang Cantabile

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Rimm Chae
Arirang Cantabile
2022

About the Item

The story of Chae Rimm I have been trying to construct my own artistic world based on traditional ottchil, or Korean lacquer, techniques and my years of experience with jewelry design. I started working as a jewelry designer in 2000 and considered jewelry making an artistic field. Then I realized the limitations of jewelry as ornaments: Unless worn on the body, they often end up locked in a safe. I found that aspect disappointing, so I was determined to reinvent myself as a modern ottchil artist, and my encounter with ottchil felt like destiny. I think all the hours I spent working on jewelry design have laid the foundation for my ottchil endeavors. While working on my lacquer painting, I strive to create a novel sense of “resonance” within tradition rather than seeking out a new type of stimulus. The oriental philosophy of “motion in stillness,” a concept mentioned in the Chinese classic Caigentan (Tending the Roots of Wisdom), is the main source of resonance in my artworks. The origin of ottchil dates back to the 3rd and 4th century BCE, and I want to reinterpret the field with a modern twist. In the past, ottchil played a key role in every part of Korean life, but now it remains relevant only in arts and crafts. What matters most to me when transforming ottchil into contemporary art is “freedom” and the “experimental spirit.” I change temperatures and humidity to vary hues and textures; adjust light and shade to make the painting resemble a watercolor, an oil painting, or a pastel; and occasionally work on creating a dot painting despite the viscosity of lacquer. Such reinterpretation is a painstaking process but I will continue to experiment with the vast potential of ottchil. I hope to continue creating “sculptural paintings” that use ottchil and mother-of-pearl as well as lacquer landscape paintings that demonstrate the potential of ottchil as pure fine art. he Arirang Cantabile project reflects Korean sensibilities and natural landscapes embedded in “Arirang” through images of the inner psyche. “Arirang” is a lyrical folk song emblematic of Korea and was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012 for its Outstanding Universal Value. Recently, BTS’s cover of “Arirang” on its world tours has also made it a global sensation. The project is a polyptych that comprises over 160 panels of paintings. In this project, I have tried to recreate the elements of traditional Korean aesthetics (lines, colors, and empty spaces) with a modern twist. To that end, I have used diverse creative lines, based on the traditional color schemes of obangsaek (yellow, blue, red, white, and black) and ogansaek (green, light blue, bright red, sulfur yellow, and violet). To me, colors are much more than a secondary sculptural element. Throughout the work, the connotative language of color reflects “nature and life.” Since natural landscapes are composed of colors, the delight of combining colors and planes is evident in my work. I mix colors, peel them off, reinterpret them, and redesign them while focusing on revealing the innate texture of lacquer. My work incorporates many contrasting values, such as the traditional and the contemporary, East and West, and light and darkness. It also hopes to create lingering feelings amid the juxtaposition of the simple and the profound as well as the bold and the delicate. I have long strived to carry on and reinvent traditional jewelry designs, so I try to reflect in my work my concern and interest in Korean aesthetics. This goes beyond the use of traditional materials (e.g., lacquer, hemp fabric, paper, and mother-of-pearl); it involves the study of how these materials can be arranged within the frame. On top of this, the exploration of colours and planes, coupled with the ambiguous line between the figurative and the abstract, brings a unique sculptural sensibility to the work. This is not only an aesthetic achievement resulting from a delicate attention to landscapes but also the fruit of efforts to reproduce Korean imagery using a modern sculptural lexicon. In my project, oriental philosophy covering relations in life, the concept of circulation in nature, and harmony between humans and nature is reflected in the varying hues and simplified landscapes. Some 160 panels each exist independently but together create an epic lyrical fantasy. The work’s unique Korean language of colours embodies visual sensibilities and contemplation that evoke an infinite kaleidoscope of inspirations. While remaining independent of contemporary art trends, I hope to expand my artistic world of comfort through introspection, the practice of art as a healing tool, and a unique visual language of colours.

Creator:
Rimm Chae (1963, Korean)
Creation Year:
2022
Dimensions:
Height: 7.9 in (20.07 cm)Width: 7.9 in (20.07 cm)
Medium:
Wood,Lacquer
Period:
21st Century
Framing:
Framing Options Available
Condition:
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU683311474842