Han Choong Seok

A relationship is defined as “the connection between two or more entities; the way they are connected.” All men begin relationships from the moment of birth, and the family invariably becomes the starting point of every person’s relationships. Whereas forming a relationship requires all involved parties to invest time in becoming familiar with each other. A proper relationship involves a period of aging, one could say. In other words, forming a good relationship needs practicing. Even the family, a set of close relationships tied together by destiny, is not an exception to this principle. The attempt to explicate the nature of relationships forms the foundation and pillar of Choongseok Han’s painterly practice. “Don’t expect too much from people. Don’t be jealous, either. People stay when in love and leave when they aren’t, and that’s the nature of relationships. So, don’t be too concerned with too many things. Also, always be open to learning new things, and remember to take care of yourself!”Han’s paintings have continuously evolved in style, but he re-uses a set of the same titles for his works, indicating that the paintings, in fact, are the parts of a series. This choice could be seen as part of him affirming the “identity” and “absolute value” that served as the spine throughout his practice. To name a few, Relationship Exercise, River of Healing, Without Fear, and Pierrot are the titles most frequently used in his recent works. Whereas the preference for repetitive titles could be seen as the sign of Han’s artist spirit tightening its own “relationship ties.” Han says that he must always remain alert as if he were carrying a “razor-sharp awl” in his pocket. His paintings show how much one could enrichen one’s life by keeping an appropriate degree of alertness at all moments of his life. All relationships must begin with a question mark, but their ends will always be exclamation marks. The grain of a relationship is formed by the various modes of love involved and the multitudes of emotions and metaphors they produce. Trees live hundreds and thousands of years, but inside them, the growth rings show that even they take pauses in their lives. Like them, we need an appropriate amount of negative space in our relationships. But this time, we do not need to reach as far as “the hedgehog’s dilemma” because Han’s paintings demonstrate to us that having “negative space” in our relationships can allow us to communicate and exchange emotions at sophisticated levels — the key to a happy life. His paintings proclaim how important it is to constantly confess to oneself and others and the importance of it being an attitude of life. And the narrow, squinting eyes in Han’s paintings now seem like the gesture of accommodation and respect, which provide a breathing space in relationships rather than the eyes of a person excessively aware of others’ opinions. The gazes of Han’s characters now guide us towards symbols of faith, the evidence that allows us to trust in each other.