ARTIST’S NOTE | 18
Philosophy of Art & Life
2020 노트에서 발췌
Existential Finitude and the Schemata of Thought
My contemplation begins with confronting the unsealed, fundamental rift situated between the ideals beyond perception and the reality upon which I stand. Although humanity possesses an intuition regarding ultimate unity, our consciousness and our physical body are a finite medium that can never reach that state. This unclosed gap is the inevitable condition that defines my existence and the deepest source of my art. All my creation operates on the recognition that this schism remains, never to be fully resolved.
This perspective embraces the essential tension arising between the cruel cycle of life and demise, and the certainty of impossibility against the premonition of possibility, as the core subject of art. I know this problem cannot be solved, but because I am an artist, I constantly give visual testimony to the inherent yearning born from this persistent tension. The unresolved question itself becomes a source, and I have chosen to think and work from that source.
Furthermore, the realization that the multilayered weight of this long-lasting problem cannot be fully contained within a single form propels me. My Schemata is the Cognitive Apparatus that recognizes this impossibility and temporarily maps the existential fissure as an analytical structure. Not a single, complete answer, but a structural diagram that is constantly updated, the Schemata reveals the manner in which my perception confronts the world.
For me, Art and Life exist in the deepest possible complementary relationship. This is because the act of creating is a persistent way of living—responding anew each day to the problems of existence arising from this division, and creatively managing that response. My Schemata is a structural declaration based on the insight into perfection, and simultaneously, an existential realization that the moment of that completion will not arrive in this world. I commit my life and art in the attempt to precisely construct the form and relation between the poles, knowing that the ultimate destination may not be reached.
Our life is a practical endeavor to bravely endure this existential dissonance and construct the most genuinely human form of being within finitude. This is not intellectual arrogance, but an ethical stance of existence that seeks to acknowledge one's own limits and strive to “live well and achieve a faithful end.” To live well and to end well are not separate issues, but a unified attitude that faces the condition of finitude head-on.
My Schemata transcends my artistic form; it is a tool of creative destiny that represents my way of being, embracing the unclosed fissure. I take these nine archetypal inquiries as my daily existential commitment, and through the process of these questions, I give witness to the essential beauty where art and life reflect and transform one another.
Nine Archetypal Inquiries
A. Facing Finitude and Responsibility
1. Discovery of Positive Will
Knowing that the unity penetrating mind, reason, and soul will never be realized, how do I discover and formalize the minimum positive will that continuously moves me within this unresolvable fissure?
2. Justification of Pursuit
Though the Reality I pursue in the stream of life may never be captured, do I accept this pursuit itself as the most justifiable act defining my existence?
3. Ethical Weight of Destiny
Individual actions repeat the problem of eternal division. How do I bear and manage the ethical weight that my actions carry within this heavy destiny?
B. Praxis of Witness and Acceptance
1. Truth of Connection
What is my most truthful point of connection with this phenomenal world? Is it the premonition of unattainable unity, or is it the distance itself that will be eternally maintained?
2. Creative Acceptance
Do I accept the incompleteness I perceive as my creative destiny? How do I transform this primal tension into the essential energy required for my being and creation?
3. Integrity of the Everyday
Though truth may remain only as an eternal question, am I constructing my life as the most honest evidence in response to that question?
C. Ultimate Transformation and Completion
1. Stance of Artistic Resistance
What realistic stance of resistance do my finite boundary and artistic movement present before the unsealed fissure, thereby defining the form of my existence
2. Human Testimony of the Senses
What vivid testimony do my five senses deliver regarding the incomplete presence, thereby urging creation toward a more human state of being?
3. Evidence of Noble Conversion
What is the essential tension I hold in highest value, and how is it transformed into the form of life that serves as evidence for a faithful end?
This journey of undertaking these fundamental inquiries is the process by which art and life penetrate each other's domain, formally constructing my way of being. I use the Schemata to document the trajectory of these questions as structure, and by observing that structure, I endure and renew myself as a finite being. My art is not the answer to these questions, but the continuous testimony of how these questions create form between the world and myself.