Jesse Chun

 

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시: concrete poem
graphite, handcut Hanji (Korean mulberry paper), wood frame
62.5 x 36 x 2.5 inches / 158.75 × 91.44 × 6.35 cm
2023 - ongoing


In 시: concrete poem, Chun creates her own asemic writing through a laborious, time-based material meditation. She interprets the Korean shamanic tradition of paper cutting (설위설경), used to create talismans and to communicate across other worlds, by repeatedly drawing graphite lines on hanji (Korean mulberry paper) and meticulously cutting her own abstract language patterns by hand. This process is also inspired by Chun’s late grandmother, a former Korean folk dancer and Buddhist monk who exposed the artist to writing as a metaphysical 수행 practice. The works reflect on embodied enunciations made through gaps, shadows, and time.