Elements- Line

2017 노트에서 발췌

A line is the most fundamental force through which my thought is conveyed.

When thought moves outward through the rhythm of the body, the line stands at its first threshold. It is not a mere outline, but a material act that holds texture, density, speed, and pressure— an event where the rhythm of perception and the tension of the mind coexist. It is a passage through which inner thought extends into the outer world, the first trace where being reveals itself. Thus, the line forms the foundation of drawing as performative practice, and the most direct language through which my existence encounters the world.

My movement is always constrained by a given space and time, yet within those limits the line allows for infinite variation. The length of breath, the hesitation of a fingertip, and the shift of pressure alter the weight of the line, and that weight, in response to rhythm and speed, creates the texture of sensation.

Through repetition and deviation, the line reveals the tension of existence. Throughout art history, the line has exposed contours, divided space, and built order as a structural language.

For some, it was a point set in motion¹, and for others, a walk traced through thought². Some explored the balance and cosmic order of vertical and horizontal lines³, while others used the line to dismantle and reconstruct form⁴. In this way, the line has been a fundamental sign expressing emotion, thought, structure, and order. This lineage remains only as a background for understanding my own.

My line begins from these prior definitions, yet reshapes their meaning to construct its own language. It arises within the known order, while urging that very order to be thought anew. For me, the line is not merely a means to define form, but a performative trace where thought and sensation intersect— an event that occurs where consciousness and the body, mind and the unconscious, converge.

The line is the trajectory of my thought, the sensory trace through which I relate to the world. As it moves from one point to another, the line sometimes bursts forth like an impulse, sometimes gathers itself into the rhythm of structure.

At times it rises from the flow of the unconscious, performing the vibration of an inner movement that words cannot reach. Thus, the line is both a boundary and a passage— a separation and a connection at once.

Ultimately, the line is closer to process than to result. Ephemeral in the moment, yet irreversible once drawn, it endures as a trace of decision. It oscillates between control and release, recording my way of existing within the world. In my work, a line never remains as a single mark;
it becomes an act— a site where question and response intersect, where the next shape and form begin to emerge.

Notes

Wassily Kandinsky, Point and Line to Plane (1926): “A line is a point that has gone for a walk.”
Paul Klee, Pedagogical Sketchbook (1925): “Drawing is like taking a line for a walk.”
Piet Mondrian, through Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow (1930) and writings on universal balance and absolute order.
Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne, through their exploration of contour and structural line to deconstruct and reconstruct form.

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