By Nayoung Jung, Curator of SOMA Museum of Art

The Aesthetics of Disappearance

Yunhee Huh executes her drawings with charcoal. She gives birth to her drawings through the process of depicting and erasing countless times. The act of wiping out is to vacate, generating space to embrace something else. Through this act, however, she cannot make the space completely new because some of the charcoal marks remain on the paper as they were. One’s memories also leave traces somewhere although they seem to have completely disappeared. New memories are stacked on top of these traces and then removed, but again piled and then erased again. Everyone lives in this process of rubbing out his or her own memories.

Huh’s drawings at times rendered on the wall inevitably disappear due to the limits of space and time. Although the traces and processes of the drawing are kept on video, the absence of objects at the moment is underscored. We often feel pity and sorrow when standing in front of her drawings probably because they bear her memories that are soon to be forgotten and wiped out. But, if feeling her positive attitude towards life, we may soon return to a serene state of mind. Everyone has a moment when he wants to catch and stay for good or a moment he tries to forget, but always haunts him. The way not to fall into vanity and sarcasm with time is to conjure up patience and composure, so as to let each moment flow away like a stream of water. Yunhee Huh seems to know that way well. She seems to be full of enthusiasm for life and passion for art more than at any other time.

Three years after I first met her, I felt her face brighten up. Since settling back in Korea after returning from a foreign country, she seems more comfortable and mature, healing the wounds caused by her harsh life in the country. While the artist was previously faithful to her own experiences and inner emotions, she currently seems to embrace external voices and shows concern for others. The nature she depicts is no longer a symbol for expressing her feelings, but part of her everyday life.

Thought of A Leaf

At the moment she bashfully mentioned the title, I decided on the title as a Thought of A Leaf.

She had more concern for nature after moving her studio to near Bukak mountain. She gathered leaves and pine cones and drew them. She would often be in contemplation in the process of strolling, collecting, and writing. In The Diary of Leaves, she fills each page of a notebook with one leaf and a few lines of her comments on nature. She seems to think that the gathering of diverse groups of people shapes a city, just as the wide variety of leaves form a natural scene. Her comments on nature move to mentions of men. Huh depicts one man everyday, including men she met in a book, men she actually saw, and men who suddenly appeared in her mind.

The artist renders this charcoal drawing on the wall. Depicted on a wall are men, leaves, and an urban scene. I am writing this essay about this work, but I haven’t been able to see this work so far. I just have made assumptions from what she explained. The work will appear in a fresh mood on the opening day. Even if everything is thoroughly conceived, even the artist doesn’t know how the work will develop. The work will be probably influenced by her instant feelings, physical strength, and atmosphere. It is in the flavor of a site-specific work.

Thought of A Leaf is like a hopeful symphony. Leaves in nature whisper. Each leaf of lawn, acacia, plane tree, pine tree, and willow whispers. A man’s shadow reflected by the sunlight glimmers between urban buildings. The artist represents the happiness in life she shares with a man in a day and a leaf in another day in a simple manner. One who does what she or he wants to do appears so beautiful. She accounted for her work with her eyes twinkling, infatuated with the arts. This look is still vivid in my memory.

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Fragmentary Thoughts on Drawing

By Yunhee Huh

I do my drawings in a plain, simple yet at times rough, coarse manner.

I sometimes render my drawings in a primitive, impromptu, passionate, and vivid manner.

Who am I? How do I live? What do I think about?

Questions go on in life.

The traces of the body and its marks are made in the process of searching for answers.

Drawings bloom.