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Hwasaan, Kang - Incidental Dominion in Life
Hwasaan, Kang - Incidental Dominion in Life
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The refined color field that was sitting at the center of his previous work entitled ‘Stillness and Move-
ment’ is the figuration of the sea. The sea appears so calm and peaceful that one would not feel an inch
of stir. It is, as the artist claims, the image of a mirror. It could be a mirror of narcissism that the artist
might indulge himself in on seeing the acceptable outcome of his careful refining, the sea surface. Yet, it
could also be a mirror of introspection reflecting his will to look in his own soul hidden behind the mirror
or under the sea surface. The spaces created by vertical and horizontal strokes are those planned and
the resulting ladder shapes are the images of his desire to rise in society. However, chance operations are
rather indirect and scarce in this series even when intrusions occur with abrupt strokes.

This artwork, being more audacious with direct expressions, displays a technique that is close to Tach-
isme but different in that it doesn’t totally rely on chance operations to form an image. The covering up
of certain areas of the canvas with colors by repeating painting and scratching corresponds to actual
erasing or washing-off gestures. What he would want to erase or wash off most would be the excessive
desire that only causes him despair and frustration. The chance operations that appear as unintended
developments of colors and lines mingling, running, and spreading play more vigorous roles, as both the
man-made order and chance have their own share of roles under the Nature’s Order.

The Chance’s Chefs-d’Oeuvres - Pleasure and Hope
While ‘Stillness and Movement’ series is more conceptual than material, instant and resolute expres-
sions characterize his current artwork and chance seems to have taken a bigger role to the extent that
subjectivity and primitivism prevail. The artist draws lines, applies layers of colors of his choosing before
the previous layer dries off, and watches them mix and spread while holding onto simple fragmented
thoughts with no concrete images in mind. He is now full of joy from the unintended turns chance
makes. There is exaltation from the impromptu brush strokes falling down on the surface. On top of his
desire he wants to hide by adding and erasing layers after layers, gently he puts a small withered flower
he picked up on a deserted trail after a rainfall. Was his finding of the flower an instance of chance or
inevitability? He then adds up an image of a flower, the sign of hope, on his canvas. He is at prayer. The
artist’s comparison of the thick red or blue brush strokes to an act of seeding or rice planting accounts
for his hope for proliferation and, what is more, it is a message of hope he delivers to himself for his own
artwork.

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