Uisuk Byeon – Peace River

When British painter David Hockney flew over California by plane he noticed the sparkling reflections of swimming pools in the garden of nearly every house. Fascinated by the shimmering shapes the sun traced on the water surface he produced several paintings in which he transformed these reflections into ornamental ripples. The reflecting surface separates thus the "above" from the "underneath", the obvious from a mysterious depth. The reflection draws the attention to the sphere above, like a mirror.

Uisuk Byeon's concerns are similar in nature:

As a mortal human being, I am attracted to the moments of transcendental experiences which are usually through the transparent and reflective surfaces like water and windows of buildings that I walk by everyday. They reflect images in abstraction and keep changing forms and color of the imagery as their surroundings and fluid water move. From transitory phenomenon, I reflect myself on them and think about as an ephemeral existence, which is also for me the moment to have a hope to be eternal. (Uisuk Byeon)

Uisuk Byeon's approach to the phenomenon of reflection is completely different from Hockney's investigation. He integrated the pool as a symbolic element into a narrative scene but Byeon's paintings are monochromes, free from any narrative. She uses the color to represent water, windows and sky. Nevertheless, the surface also shows a pattern of ripples. These ripples are not painted but result from the paint itself. Like an old master painting a fine pattern of cracks, so called craquelure, covers the surface. Depending on the thickness of paint and paint quality, cracks vary from stable to erratic in pattern. She uses interference color which reflects light and brings shiny quality to the windows and then shifts to another color as light hits it. Through the interaction of color and light, she creates phenomenon that is ephemeral and at the same time timeless. The effect on the viewer oscillates between meditative immersion and a feeling of repulsion for a surface which withholds the secrets of the deep. The viewer is left to his own reflection, in both meanings of the word. Hockney's pools symbolized a rather hedonistic way of life, which parallels the legend of Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection. Uisuk Byeon references this story in several mostly rectangular paintings. The canvas is tranformed into a magical mirror.

UISUK BYEON, born in Korea, 1981, completed her M.F.A from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Painting and Drawing, 2009. She has received awards in Nippon Steel USA Inc. 2006-2008. Her works have been exhibited in galleries in Chicago, Miami, Indianapolis and Seoul. She is living and working in Chicago.

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