Artwork text
On the land
there are an old man and a horse,
and on the sea
a single small boat.
They are in different places,
yet they endure the same wind.
The two shadows on the cliff
become a place of return for the boat,
and the small boat amid the waves
becomes the hope still left to the old man.
Though they cannot reach each other,
within the same wind
they look toward one another.
To endure
is not to hold out alone.
Perhaps it is to remain together,
drawing comfort and strength
even from a distant presence.
Key context
Byun Shi-Ji was a Korean modern and contemporary painter who treated Jeju’s Fūdo not as scenery but as a condition of existence. Through solitude, waiting, wind and the colour of dried grass, his art formed a glocal modernism rooted in Korea and open to the world.