Our Shared Palette: Memories and Colours
Jei Cho
See it On Campus: Level 1
Visitor InfoI'm installing the paintings on the first floor in the sculpture gallery.
Wonderland (2024)
Wonderland, mixed media paper collage, 70″x 8″, 2024
Within each of us have a whimsical and pure mind, like a fairy tale. Whether it’s the beautiful flowers seen on the street, the clouds passing by in the sky, cute dogs or parents lovingly caring for their children, observing and empathizing with these small, easily overlooked moments can reveal their inherent beauty. In that way, I find happiness in the everyday life. These moments of happiness are stored in my mind and are reborn as colours, shapes, and stories when I create artwork.
To incorporate various colours, I worked with gouache, watercolour, coloured pencil, and pastel, as well as paint samples and both sides of translucent paper.
Have you ever imagined flying above the clouds? I often find myself thinking about jumping onto those fluffy clouds on a bright, sunny day or when I feel excited.
While creating this artwork, I focused not only on blending colours cohesively but also on a story where every element connects. I exaggerated elements of humour, fantasy, and whimsy. Scenes like a bird flying above clouds, a mysterious creature running away through bushes, a person napping under a tree, or a father trying to stop his son from approaching a giant dog, I added a touch of humour and ideation. Each element contributed to the overall storytelling of the piece.
Untitled (2024)
This is a mobile I created using many different mediums, inspired by my past art practice of figures and the paper collage work Wonderland.
Entangled (2024)
This artwork has been a new challenge and a source of great excitement for me, especially since I used to paint within the confines of the paper frame. I cut out various body parts and connected them to create one large movement.
Falling (2024)
As I connected three pieces of paper, I was fascinated by the idea of connecting and creating spaces. I was intrigued by the realization that the figures I had confined to individual sheets of paper were actually connected to adjacent sheets, allowing for the possibility of an ongoing narrative. I found myself wondering where the paper and this painting would end.
The sentiment behind creating this artwork reflects my continuous efforts in art making, much like the repetition of creating new pieces of paper without an apparent endpoint. At the bottom, people are stacked, and even at that moment, they are endlessly ascending and moving towards somewhere. I don’t know where their journey will end.
The Couple (2024)
I expressed the longing of lovers who want to see each other despite being apart.
Our Shared Palette: Memories and Colours (2023)
Since late 2023, I’ve been drawing a lot of figures. If asked how these paintings started, the colours, shapes, and compositions came out very naturally. Not knowing what to draw, I simply picked up translucent paper and a brush dipped in paint and just started painting. The six paintings below are the first series in this project. While painting, I thought about the situations the figures were in, the atmosphere and conditions around them, and their forms from the perspective of the figures themselves, expressing them in colours.
Each painting contains its own narrative.
Empty Mind (2023)
I think the cord he’s holding is a faint hope, longing for the lights to turn on. And I believe that faint hope will come true.
Dongsal(2023)
The book ‘Dongsal’ is a compilation of sketches, drawings, and paintings that I created from 2022 to 2023. It consists of a total of 130 pages divided into six parts. The word ‘Dongsal’ in Korean refers to the sunlight at dawn which I named this book to symbolize the light of my new beginning.
The reason I draw is not for enormous or glorious futures but to share warmth, comfort, and joy with the audiences by depicting the small yet heartfelt emotions and situations I experience each day. Drawing, for me, is a source of happiness and comfort, an act of solace in itself. With a belief in my art, I collaborated on the design of this book, incorporating the drawings and writings I created day by day.
This book was printed in only 10 copies, intended as a gift for myself and those around me.
I would say this page is my favourite in the book. When I created the painting on the left side, I was going through a mentally challenging time. It’s something everyone might ponder at some point, worries about the future and whether I could become a good artist. During that period, I came across a quote by South Korean painter Park Seo-bo that resonated deeply with me “If you don’t adapt to change you will fall. If you change you will still fall.” It brought me a lot of thoughts and insights. That’s why this artwork speaks to me more personally and with deep emotional attachment than any other painting.
