Page 24 - 강화산의 작품세계

Hwasaan, Kang - Incidental Dominion in Life
Hwasaan, Kang - Incidental Dominion in Life
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우연의 지배-생명 Incidental Dominion in life - Life
캔버스위에 아크릴 나무 53x65cm 2020
I was deeply moved by Shakespeare’s sonnets, which led to
read the works by French poet Paul Vale’ry. It was a long time
ago, but I remember how I was fascinated by his long poem,
La Jeune Parque, and painted a series of work without fully
appreciating its meaning. The first lines go like this:
Who cries there, if not the simple wind, at this hour Alone, in
this deep night shining like the end? .. But who is there crying,
So close to me, at this moment I cry? I also recall Rainer Maria
Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. Be patient towards all that is
unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions them-
selves. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them
gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into
the answer.
Let me share with you one of my favorite Shakespeare son-
nets, Sonnet 43 All days are night.
When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see,
For all the day they view things unrespected;
But when I sleep, in dreams they look on thee,
And darkly bright, are bright in dark directed.
Then thou, whose shadow shadows doth make bright,
How would thy shadow’s form happy show
To the clear day with thy much clearer light,
When to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so!
How would, I say, mine eyes be blessed made
By looking on thee in the living day,
When in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
Through heavy sleep on sightless eyes doth stay!
All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
The idea of transferring Vale’ry’s solitude and longing, Maria
Rilke’s life and Shakespeare’s love on my canvas sometimes
made me feel as if standing in the wilderness. The wilderness
is an empty plain. It is a place of suffering, agony, and solitude.
The Israelites began by listening to the Word of God in the wil-
derness, and for them the wilderness is not just a place of suf-
fering, agony, and solitude. The wilderness is a place to meet
God. It is where God’s compassion and mercy are present. It