'Bloodline'

Sangsun Bae

Hwasun, South Korea, b. 1971

Sangsun Bae has been making two types of paintings: one type made using blueblack ink and charcoal on white surfaces coated with gesso mixed with the blue-black ink, and another type made by drawing countless fine lines of gesso using a fine-point brush on surfaces of black velvet in a way that brings out the jet-black color. These works have their origins in abstracted profile lines extracted from figure sketches, and they thus carry a rhythm of organic lines that relate to the bonds that are formed between lives and also to her current knotted forms. Bae, who started off by drawing people in order to better understand herself, eventually developed an interest in the very movements of people. While exploring her thoughts through delving into the questions of what it means to be human and what it means to live, she eventually began to focus on the subtle changes in the air that occur between two posing models set in the different combinations of woman-woman, man-man, or man-woman. Here lies an important concept of Bae, who has discovered the imperceptible and indefinite aura or energy generated and exchanged between people that constantly shifts in direction and strength.