Lee Dong Sik

   Kim Chun-hwan is mainly based in Korea and France and is recognized for his unique work that is “difficult to criticize as being similar to anyone else.” Paper is used as the main material in his works. There are many artists who work with paper, but it is rare to find an artist who utilizes paper in a unique way that has never been seen before like Kim Chun-hwan. He has unwaveringly continued his paper work for over 30 years, creating a unique and clear world of art. The paper that Kim uses as material for his works is printed matter such as magazines and advertisements. Printed materials are used as a symbol of this information era, where an enormous amount of information is created, consumed, and disappears quickly. Various printed materials function as a representative medium of the information era, but most of them expire within a short period of time after their creation and are destined to be discarded or put away somewhere. Printed materials that have already lost their function or are on the verge of extinction are brought back to life through the artist’s hands. After majoring in fine arts at an art university in Korea and settling in Paris in 1995, we can say that his encounter with paper as a basis for his work was fateful. He himself says that his connection with paper began during his childhood in his father's wood mill. The textures and breaths he experienced while playing in piles of woodchips and sawdust during his childhood were embedded in his unconscious and were revived in Paris, a place unfamiliar to him. The feel of the sawdust passing through his fingers is transferred to the act of tearing or cutting a piece of paper and becomes a new work of art on his canvas. The dust created by the friction of tearing paper is a passage connecting time and space with the sawdust-blowing wood mill of his childhood. The fun play of his distant past becomes the basis of his work and the source of his aesthetics. His work resembles that of a farmer. The process of a farmer sowing seeds, sprouting them, growing seedlings, transplanting them to the field, fertilizing them, and pulling out weeds is almost identical to his work. He searches for and picks up appropriate prints, sorts them by color, uses various hand movements such as tearing, cutting, folding, and bunching to create the shapes he wants, then transfers them to the screen. For this artist, printed matter is the seed of his work, and the process of creating the desired shape with hand movements is no different from sprouting and growing seedlings. Just as a farmer transplants seedlings into the field, the artist transfers these shapes onto the screen, refines them, and grows them again. 

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 김춘환 작가는 한국과 프랑스를 주된 거점으로 “누구 하나 닮았다고 평하기 어려운” 그만의 고유한 작품성으로 평가받고 있습니다. 주요 재료로 종이를 사용합니다. 종이작업을 하는 작가는 많지만, 김춘환 작가만큼 이전에 없었던 특유의 방식으로 종이를 활용하는 작가는 흔치 않습니다. 흔들림 없이 자신만의 종이작업을 30년을 넘게 지속하며 고유하고 명징한 예술세계를 일구어 왔습니다.

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 김춘환 작가가 사용하는 종이는 잡지, 광고지 등 인쇄물입니다. 수많은 정보가 빠르게 생겼다가 소비되고 사라지는 오늘날 정보시대를 함축하는 상징으로 인쇄물을 채용한 것입니다. 다종다양한 인쇄물들은 정보시대의 대표적 매개체로 기능하지만, 그 생성 이후 길지 않은 시간 이내에 대부분 그 효용을 다하고 곧 폐기되거나 어딘가 치워질 운명에 처합니다. 이미 그 기능이 소멸되었거나 소멸 직전인 인쇄물들이 김춘환의 손을 통해서 다시 강고한 생명을 얻게 됩니다. 

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 미술대학에서 순수미술을 전공하고 1995년 파리에 정착한 이후 작업 기반으로서 종이를 만난 것은 운명적이라고 할만 합니다. 그 스스로 종이와의 인연이 유년시절 아버지의 목재소에서 시작되었다고 말합니다. 나무 부스러기나 톱밥더미에서 놀며 경험했던 유년시절 감촉과 호흡들이 무의식 속에 내재되어 있다가 낯선 땅에서 되살아 났습니다. 손가락 사이로 빠져나가는 톱밥가루의 감촉은 낱장의 종이를 찢거나 오리는 행위로 전이되어 화폭 위에 새로 피어나고, 종이를 찢는 마찰로생기는 먼지들은 톱밥가루 날리는 어린 시절 목재소와 시공간을 이어주는 통로입니다. 아득한 시절의 놀이가 이렇게 그의 작업의 근간이며 그 미감의 원천이 됩니다.