Into the world of writer Ahn Chung-guk

20250711_101537 (1).png

We visited a place where the artist Chungguk Ahn from North Korea held an exhibition, titled “Line-Standing at the Source and the Boundary.” He defected to South Korea at the age of 14, and upon arrival, he enrolled in school. The students who studied at that school kept bullying and talking to him to say something in a North Korean accent, making him feel isolated. He has been drawing since he was 10 years old, so after graduating from high school, he enrolled at Hongik University College of Fine Arts. Artist Ahn Chung-guk primarily presents abstract works, and his pieces often explore questions about his life experiences, memories, and identity. In the past, An Chung-guk did not paint many pictures using color, but recently, he is said to be trying to express his emotions more using color.

He said that when someone sees his work for the first time, they could feel like almost all the arts were connected to the North Korean defection. However, he claims all of the art he made is not meant to be connected with defecting from North Korea, but rather it is meant to allow the audience to connect their own life to his work. Furthermore, he told us he purposefully uses cement in his work as cement on the canvas presents a unique phenomenon of falling apart naturally because some cement gets stuck while other parts fall. By placing a mesh, the cement adheres well to the canvas. So after listening to this, when looking at one of his works, I visualized my own life story in this work. One of the paintings looked like a field because I saw the sun, rice, and river in the abstract art. And there was a picture of a paper airplane there, which makes you feel like you want to fly and go somewhere.

Overall, his exhibition was really impressive, presenting an insightful experience.

Woohyun Kim 기자 woohyun.kim@lcaeaglenation.org 이 기자의 다른 기사 보기