Artwork text
On the stone wall, crows sit in a row.
Each has a different shape,
yet all look toward the same sea.
At the far end of the horizon,
a small boat.
On land, many remain;
at sea, there is only one.
The sun is dim,
and the boat moves farther away.
The crows do not cry.
They simply do not leave their place.
Perhaps waiting is this:
for the one who has gone alone,
those who remain
look at the sea together.
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.