Crowded Monument is a contemporary art project that examines the emotional struggles of individuals in modern society. Inspired by the subject of public solitude, the project explores how individuals negotiate identity and inner autonomy within the pressures of a crowded outer world. Beyond tension and compromise, it reflects on the ways people protect their inner selves, seek fragile forms of coexistence, and gradually arrive at a sense of self-alignment. Until the individual becomes a quiet monument in their own right.
Materiality remains at the core of my creative process. Through a series of conceptual practices using materials such as wood, raw canvas, glass, and various painting media, the project investigates the tension between collective structures and personal interiority.
On the Surface explores how symbolic structures shape identity in a noisy, crowded world.
The thirteen large-scale playing cards (ca. 80 x 120 cm) function as psychological surfaces rather than game objects, questioning how we position ourselves within visible systems.
The wood boards are conceived to form a fragile house-of-cards installation. The structure relies on mutual support, creating a temporary and unstable balance. In this configuration, solitude does not disappear; it is briefly held together through shared vulnerability.
Beneath the visible symbols lie multiple layers: a vivid, expressive, and unconstrained inner self. The painted surface acts as a mask, marking a threshold between an inner ideal space and the external structures that seek to define us.
Within the Crowd shifts the focus from symbolic structures to the emotional realities that emerge within collective environments. Through abstract figurative paintings—developed through the lens of sculptural masterpieces—the human figure is distilled toward its essential presence. The works seek a distinct visual language capable of capturing the essence of solitude and self-recognition within the crowded collective.
The paintings explore psychological states that arise as individuals navigate shared spaces while maintaining an inner sense of solitude. Themes of self-awareness, tension, emotional exposure, and the delicate negotiation between individuality and belonging appear throughout the series.
Materiality plays an important role in shaping this language. Raw canvas provides a grounded yet skin-like foundation, while the fluid strokes of Chinese ink move along the contours of the body. Irregular fragments of dark canvas emerge across the surface, forming protective structures that resemble a defensive shield. In this way, the crowd becomes not only a physical condition but also a psychological landscape in which identities continuously form, dissolve, and reposition themselves.
Embodied focuses on the individual as a living structure of experience. Through a series of mixed-media paintings of different scales—ranging from studies of the human body to abstract portraiture—the works observe the human figure from multiple angles and perspectives. The body becomes a site where memory, emotion, and identity accumulate, revealing presence itself as a form of quiet monumentality.
Rather than depicting traditional monuments or symbols of permanence, the works explore how posture, presence, and psychological weight can evoke monumentality within the individual. The figure appears both vulnerable and resilient, standing within the collective world while carrying the traces of personal history and inner resistance. Through this exploration of embodiment, the series reflects on how individuality persists as a grounded yet evolving presence amid the pressures of contemporary life.