"INVITE YOU" ( Moon Ewon, The unknown noble plants Exhibition) The particularly hot summer heat is finally coming to an end, but WOONJOONG Gallery is ahead of the season with Moon Ewon’s works depicting winter landscapes. The title of the exhibition is . The Four Gentlemen refer to four plants that have traditionally been considered to resemble noble gentlemen in Asia: plum blossoms, orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo. However, we do not find these four plants in Moon Ewon’s works. The various unnamed wild grasses that fill the canvas are the Four Gentlemen to this artist. The artist captures the moment of extinction of wild plants. The wild plants wither and disappear on the background of natural mother-of-pearl, which refers to the hard, rainbow-colored inner layer of seashells or abalone shells used in traditional Korean crafts. In the extreme contrast between the black drawing of the disappearing wild grass and the rainbow-colored background of natural mother-of-pearl, the wild grass gains new life. The fluttering movement of the wild grass as if dancing and the abstractness of the fragmented mother-of-pearl are extremely sculptural, and the harmony between them is subtle and exquisite. Although she borrows traditional materials, her aesthetic is incomparably modern. Keeping the Principles of Drawing Her work is based on thorough drawing. Around the middle of fall and winter, wild grasses shed their seeds and prepare to return to nature. This is the time for the artist to draw. She always takes her sketching tools and goes out into the fields. She captures the way the wild grasses breathe and sway in the air, right where they wither and die. Her drawings do not rely on photography or video. The drawings basically serve as the base for her early work process, but they are attractive by themselves enough to catch the viewer’s attention. There is no small deviation from her simple but difficult principle that good works come from good drawings. Bold and Unique Technique First, we should pay attention to Moon Ewon’s canvas, which is the framework of her work. She evenly spreads hemp cloth on shaped birch plywood and coats it with glutinous rice paste, which is a process that firmly holds the wood and allows the mother-of-pearl to adhere firmly to the surface. She then applies a thin layer of yellow clay to clean the grain of the hemp cloth. After that, she applies adhesive pigment, dries, and sands it. This process is repeated several times. The process of creating a uniform canvas suitable for mother-of-pearl work requires such a long period of time and great passion. Prepared field drawings are implemented on this canvas, and her unique mother-of-pearl technique is the core process of this implementation. However, the unique characteristic of Moon Ewon's work is not that the main material of her work is mother-of-pearl. Her mother-of-pearl process is difficult and requires a long time, but her unique method of utilizing mother-of-pearl is even more important. Her method is very different from the traditional Korean technique called najeon (螺鈿). In the traditional method, the main subject is directly expressed with mother-of-pearl, but Moon paints the main subject of her drawings, wild grass, with pigments and fills the remaining space with mother-of-pearl. In this respect, she is evaluated as having boldly overturned the traditional mother-of-pearl technique and grafted painting into the gaps created by this. As she was bold in her choice of materials, she was also not hesitant in her expression technique. Numerous pieces of natural mother-of-pearl fill the blank space with various colors. The wide space filled with mother-of-pearl pieces illuminates the nameless wild grasses like the lights of a large stage on a dark night. The dry wild grasses come back to life through the mother-of-pearl space and become the main characters of her work. This space sometimes becomes the blue sky, silvery river waves, layered mountain ridges, the Milky Way in the night sky, or the aurora of the polar regions. It gives a completely new life to wild grasses that were already thought to have perished. Respect for Life in the Landscape She focuses on the withering of wild plants during their life cycle. This seems to be a kind of 'twist' on our excited and tense lives. The fear of disappearance and emptiness are put into the wild grass. The youth and beauty of today are always heading towards the end, and before decline and death, there has always been youth and life. Even burning emotions and surging desires give way to decline and extinction in the end. We know that we are heading towards the end and that we will all disappear there, but even so, these ever-changing and unstoppable days are also our lives. The wild grass eventually withers and disappears, but it endures the harsh winds and heavy rain and lives on the barren land. This is why this artist compares the wild grass to the four noble plants. “I feel that these hated little wild plants here are like noble scholars who, unaffected by any events that have occurred, have steadfastly walked their own path in nature based on minimal nutrition, minimal land, and minimal attention. That is why, to me, wild plants are no different from ‘The unknown noble plants’, namely plum blossoms, orchids, chrysanthemums, and bamboos, which are treated and admired as virtuous and learned scholars in Oriental painting.” (Excerpt from the artist’s statement) She metaphorically expresses the preciousness of everyday life and the value of life by looking at wild grass and humans in civilization together. Small and large, parts and whole, they are all one organic movement and precious beings that make up this environment. Her work seems to be influenced by the cosmic perspective that wild grass and humans come from a common ancestor. On Earth, which was born about 4.5 billion years ago, a Protist, namely unicellular prokaryotes that are considered the common ancestors of all plants, animals and fungi, were born about 1.8 billion years ago, and the first terrestrial plants, similar to the current psilotales(pine needle orchids), took root here about 440 million years ago. Each of them adapts and evolves in different environments, some become plants, others become humans, and they become part of this world. Wild and civilized are not separate. Wild grasses are also a part of this planet that we share, and their existence and way of living should be respected. The earnestness that their death, life, and rebirth should continue is fully expressed in her work. Lyricism in Black Silhouette When the cold winter wind clears the mind, the song of dry wild grasses colliding with the bitter wind reaches our ears. In a barren field, under the shadow of a concrete wall, in a cracked puddle of asphalt, or on a sandbank by a river. She has been on a drawing journey with a sketchbook in hand for over ten years. She listens to the stories told by the wind and grasses in the quiet and intimate nature. The dry grasses, just as they were when they poured their last passion into this world. They seem to be giving themselves over to the wind and performing a light dance. This wondrous and mysterious moment is captured on Moon Ewon’s canvas. The dance of dry grasses unfolds against the beautiful sunlight. On her canvases, more colorful sunlight beautifully illuminates the black grasses. The mother-of-pearl space surrounding these wild grasses becomes a purple sunset, a violet morning fog, and an indigo sea, adding stories to the dance of the wild grasses. Their stories make viewers stop and look at her works. The viewers stare blankly at her works for a long time. They gradually find calm and peace, free from their excited and busy minds. The numerous colorful mother-of-pearl pieces illuminate the black wild grasses in the work, but they also brightly illuminate the faces of the viewers. Those faces seem to ask the question, “How different am I from these wild grasses?” WOONJOONG Gallery would like to share this special emotion by Moon Ewon’s works with you. Woonjoong Gallery Derector | Kim Kyung Ae Aug, 2024