This paper is a study on my own works created since 2011. The paper redefines ‘everyday life,’ the subject my works, in both conceptual and philosophical sense, and on that basis, describes the various expression techniques used in the works, as w...
This paper is a study on my own works created since 2011. The paper redefines ‘everyday life,’ the subject my works, in both conceptual and philosophical sense, and on that basis, describes the various expression techniques used in the works, as well as the meaning behind each of the works.
‘Everyday life’ is a small unit that is a part of our lives. It is repetitive, continuous, and has constancy. There is a sense of universality in that ‘everyday life’ is experienced by all people, but at the same time, a sense of individuality can be found in each person’s feelings experienced in ‘everyday life.’ Also, because ‘everyday life’is a domain where natural and intuitive experiences, thoughts, and actions take place, activities in ‘everyday life’ tend to be natural and carried out without much thought. People today feel ‘everyday life’ is boring, tedious, insignificant, and that it simply repeats itself, but in the sense that all the activities that make up our lives happen in “everyday life,” it is the source of life. Furthermore, whereas ‘everyday life’ is a concept that emphasizes its time as being continuous, allowing it to be applied to all the areas of our lives, ‘reality’ refers to ‘what is real at the moment,’ focusing more on the factuality of something, rather than its value.
“Everyday life,” a part of life so close to us, only gained people’s interest as subjects of philosophical and artistic analysis post-20th century. Pre-20th century, it was used as subject for art, but only in western art history was it studied as one paradigm. It was with the introduction of ‘pop art’ in the 1960s that ‘everyday life’ began to be expressed in various techniques. Many think that ‘Ready-made’ used by Marcel Duchamp who lead Dadaism is representative of finding material for artwork in everyday life, but it was through ‘pop art’ that the idea became a paradigm, influencing the art world. As expressed in what Arthur Danto, an American philosopher and art critic said, “Post-1960s, I abandoned beauty as ideal of art,” the paper describes how anything can be valued as artwork as long as adequate context and reason are provided for support. I am studying the exemplary works René Magritte, a leading surrealist, Alex Katz, the great American painter, and David Hockney, the leading British pop artist, while analyzing how their works have influenced the e-pression techniques in my own works.
The subject of my works is ‘everyday life.’ The early works show images of ‘dark clouds’ as the background of ‘everyday life.’ During the process of creating and expressing the mood of unfamiliarity through dépaysement technique, I realized that it was the manifestation of emotions of loneliness and melancholy in my subconscious. This paper explains the process of how contemplation of loneliness and melancholy in my subconscious led me to focus on the expression of everyday life by deconstructing the dark clouds. Also, the paper depicts various techniques, including ‘painting photos’and photo collage, used to express the aforementioned ‘everyday life.’ The feeling and the meaning of cerulean blue, often used in my work is also explained. To me, the process was a means to express and refine the internal conflict through my works and thus experience comfort and rest. It gave me an opportunity to contemplate on the meaning and the significance of everyday moments that I took for granted. In conclusion, ‘everyday life’ is something very close to us, which is mutually interconnected to our lives. Through further work, I will contemplate on the meaning of ‘everyday life’ and its relationship to life, and also find new and various techniques to improve the depth of creative work.