Artwork text
The larger horse lifts its head; the smaller one lowers it.
One looks into the distance; the other feels the ground beneath its feet.
Rising and lowering. Looking out and living on.
The two stand in one place, their bodies close together.
Green and apricot tones are softly brushed by the wind.
Soon these colors will sink into the color of dry grass, and warmth will become
solitude.
At that time, he too had two postures.
Like the pony, one part of him lifted its head and looked toward the world to come,
while another lowered its head and buried its nose in the rough ground beneath his
feet.
In colors not yet dried, the two stood leaning on each other.
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.