Artwork text
The sea
undulates in the color of dry grass.
Above, a single black sun.
It hangs there,
yet lights nothing.
A small boat floats upon the waves,
and below, a person
leans against a pony.
The absence of light
does not mean that life, too, disappears.
Even under the black sun,
the boat remains afloat,
the horse and the person lean on each other,
and the sea, in the end, still moves.
Perhaps hope is not waiting for light,
but remaining,
leaning on each other, even without light.
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.