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from seogak to calligraphy

기사승인 2018.10.23  09:50:48

공유
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▲ Artist Kim Sang-jin

Born in Gyeongju but living in Ulsan, artist Kim Sang-jin is credited for his unique style that combined seogak with calligraphy. 

His desire for art was great since he was a boy but the hard-up family could not afford him to fulfill his dream. One day after 30 years, he happened to go to an exhibition of his acquaintance and saw seogak works displayed in the room next; it was the moment of enchantment. 

"This is it" said Kim. He launched learning seogak - carving letters and images on wood - right next day and made 80 works within 50 weeks whether they were valuable or not. What he realized after making around 200 works, however, was the need of his reaching a certain level of technique. Also, it was important that he should change his direction as an 'artist' instead of a 'craftsman'. It was around this time he started to see the beauty of calligraphy. 

He traveled Seoul and Gwangju to learn the necessary skills of calligraphy and became the first calligraphy artist of Ulsan. The art requires smooth lines, unique spread of the letters and balanced beauty of blankness. To deepen his knowledge in the art, he took a course of calligraphy and culture at Wonkwang University and learned various genres of art from calligraphy and literary painting to culture with particular interest in Korean alphabets. 

"The more I study Korean alphabets, the more they became enchanting and beautiful. The consonants and vowels make them a language of combination and the fact that the forms of the consonants came from the figures of our mouth, I think, enhanced further of their esthetic values."

Apart from creating his own art works, Kim's proactive participation in various performances and art events are well known among his colleague and junior artists: he gave a seogak performance with 5 Ulsan artists to celebrate the 94th anniversary of the March 1st Movement. The process of creating the work was done on-site and they named it <Can You Hear the Shout of the Day?>. They unanimously agreed to donate the work to the Independence Hall of Korea which was really meaningful. 

Kim also is engaging in mural painting as part of urban regeneration projects and gives out free calligraphy to the people in a way of his communication while rolled up his sleeve to foster talented future seogak artists. 

When asked about future plan, he said that he would spread the beauty of Korean alphabets to the world through exhibitions home and abroad. 

   
▲ 오늘걷지 않으면 65-55cm

안정희 기자 honesty5835@naver.com

<저작권자 © 월간파워코리아 무단전재 및 재배포금지>
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