I have explored ink painting for a long time, but I do not merely remain in doing paintings. The reason is because as a work of studying the limits of materials which will be made into paintings, one must know the unique physiology of materials. It is a duty that needs to study the types of brushes and their characteristics, the merits and demerits of the Indian ink, and the limits of paper and fabric. Ink painting is an area that can only be approached by having sensational technique and intuitive sensitivity in which Indian ink, the amount of water, the speed of brush strokes, strength and flexibility, balance of tones of right and left, top and bottom, time difference between matters, etc follow. Of course, there may be people who sympathize with this area, however, most of the people merely remain at the step of understanding such world. As I go deeper into insight, this world is more an more difficult and lonesome.

  Because such ink painting is an area that requires the upmost of senses, there are no words to express the pleasure of experience. My works, up until now, were works that centered on ink painting that expressed the intrinsic pleasures of lines with drawing elements, not restricting the objects of subject matters, but the flow of recent works shows forms of column of water and signs of lines by using Indian ink and colors on top of fabrics.

  In the East, there is a saying that five sounds deafen the ears and five colors blind the eyes. It can be said that living in a world of colors, by taking colors for granted without any resistance, our sense of diagnosing the beauty of colors and the danger of colors have rather become numb. My first works which used a minimum of clear colors, as they had been applied as means of supplement for giving fresh ventilation on the monotone of the solemn ink painting, I had expressed the quaint beauty of the monotone by moderating the five colors. However, in the works after, I actively induced light-coloring, which was minimally tried. I in fact wanted to express with primary colors, even. These primary colors are the reality of the physical world that give tension and they are compared to a black hole where things get sucked in at a very fast speed. Therefore, the active attempt of primary colors mean the dynamics of the real generation. It is reflecting the reality of which we cannot escape from the black hole as we have become tamed to all the visuals without any sensation.

  What I always pursue, in my inner side, within such reality, is the ‘haven of souls.’ The haven can be called to be the ‘margin of life.’

 

  Here, I work by selecting ‘Indian ink’ in order to connect between the margin of mental concept and the dynamics of colors which mean the black hole reality. This Indian ink of monotone, the middle media of both sides, neutralizes the dynamics of colors with ‘sinking’, ‘spreading’, and ‘calmness.’ Consequently, sacrifice as a neutralizing effect gives birth to life. As it produces a margin of life by offering myself from between the reality of colors and the unreality of margin, the Indian ink can be said to be the street corner of haven. Therefore, this ‘life’ exists only by including ‘color’ and ‘Indian ink’ at the same time. Because this can only be born with the best conclusion that does not commit the foolishness of having to choose between the two, the value of life is that much noble.

  To put it in other words, I aim to synthesize the ‘energy of margin’ into new ‘life’ by placing Indian ink in a position where antithesis is made on the thesis of the physical reality. Because this is a concept of convergence that satisfies all three, I will constantly re-explore such work of synthesis.

 

  In my heart and paintings, I always talk about the margin, and the margin provides the only exit that can escape the black hole, enabling us to taste pleasures of mental amusement. Whether it be primary colors or monotone, my work eventually prioritizes the form of space, emptying myself by abandoning it. Nothingness, whiteness and emptiness are identical that are not much different from each other, and as nothingness is the origin of existence, the existing something will be complete at last when it reaches nothing. That is, what is ‘visible’ will yield fruit when it reaches what is ‘invisible.’ Because river water reaches the sea when it abandons the river, and the tree fructifies when it abandons its flower, the part in which I indulge is the margin! The ‘empty space.’ The margin! It is an ‘empty fulfillment.’ It is an empty space fulfilled. It is a light weightiness. It is a breathing space. I love the margin because it can be filled with emptiness.

 

  In conclusion, this work is an amusement of margin through dynamics of color and the calmness of Indian ink. Color, Indian ink, and margin are each called reality, sacrifice, and sensibility. That is, because it is to create emotional value of the new invisible margin conceived from the heterogeneous common denominator of the visible chromatic color and achromatic color, I call this margin in the name of ‘life.’

  In addition, we cannot have our beauty of sensitivity extorted, drifted away by the black hole of reality that sucks in at the speed of light, Because the matrix which produces nature is an invisible sensitivity, had one chase only after visible reality, it would clearly be a life with changed position and a work with changed position, which I thus refuse to do so. Therefore, my work respects the contingency and necessity of Indian ink subsumed within providence, and I wish to walk the path of which I wish to go with an upright heart in silence, not deceiving myself.

 

"Vitality-The history of light and time on water ink "

Hosaeng Kang

 

  From the time unknown pictures have been changed to be uniform. How this kind of artistic climate is made that the simplest uniformity prevails among extreme diversities. It cannot be denied that paradox and irony must be mixed repeatedly, however why the scream for diversities is sinking into simplicities in a poor manner.

  Today's worldly artistic climate suffers from epidemic hemorrhagic fever that lost self-respect. The repeated results of ignorance that who should be ahead is not you but I are on the strong current of enthusiasm to become an unrivaled star being swallowed by a huge black hole from which nothing can escape. Perhaps this is my portrait. Otherwise it might be the portraits of the artists living on the earth. What is "I know myself."? and what is the knowing? As they know that it is empty when nomads have continuity, they wish to escape from the emptiness soon. Animals are good at compromising in nature. A man who has the nature of an animal cannot escape from it, and he is willing to compromise without being aware of it. All of these results are that illusive pursuit of diversity eventually produced uniform simplicity. At this moment we have an inquiring mind to reconfirm the existence. Let us go backward. That of history, that of diversity, that of a star, that of art and that of philosophy and so on have been repeated actually till now from the generation before. We cannot say definitely that it has been improved. Just the paradoxes that reflect the ages have been continued, and time intervened in between only.
 

  Since I coexist with the time of this continuity, I often enjoy the license that follows the liberty of irresponsibility. If I had no liberty of license, I would be excluded from the reasons that I take brushes. The plays in the license reproduce me repeatedly.

  The source that produces me is water ink. From now on I will tell about my source. Painting pictures is not limited simply to the painting only; it is to study the limit of materials to be painted. If one does not know the special features of the materials, he must be far from his wish to depict. He must know the properties of all kinds of paper, the kinds and features of brushes, the advantages and disadvantages of water ink and even the material of ink stones. Even with the same water ink the color, weight and temperature and so on are different when different ink stones are used. In particular the restriction of the extraordinary variations in the movement of brushes is beyond description. All these are the area where they are not accessible without intuitive sensitivity and extrasensory techniques; the amount of ink and water, the speed of brush movement, power and flexibility, the balance in tones between parts and the time difference in materials. There are people who sympathize with this area, but most people remain in the stage of understanding this world. Here I meet something that is called absolute loneliness.
 

  The form of this work piece is the result of what I have tried since 1982. The history of time, flow, the movement trajectory of water drops, the flow of time, the shapes and traces of water drops that change with time, the shapes of each water drop and other shapes are alive as if they tell stories. It produces an effect of tremendous ambiguity and aura with blurred and unclear water ink in describing clean, bright and transparent water drops; and it has the unique taste of Oriental paintings, where colors are absorbed prior to development, in which man can see the deep, heavy and mysterious effect of water ink, while colors are developed right on the surface of canvas in Western paintings. Here I revise the chances to necessities again, and do the job of making complementary relationship between chances and necessities that cannot be separated. Like this the background of human body, the water drops and other images express the vitality that contains light and time.
 

"The Space Free of Greed and Selfishness and Emptiness"

Hosaeng Kang

 

 

Tone and Rhythm...

  My drawings are always full of ink that harmonizes with the margin. Strokes run and smear for the coexistence of strong, sharp strokes and soft, rounded strokes. Also, I focus on ‘the configuration of line and margin’ and maximize the enjoyment in the empty space by using sharp strokes. 

  This particular piece, however, shows less positive space as it reaches the bottom in comparison to the black tone on the top. Dark ink and clear ink express the sounds of dynamic lives. On the bottom is a musical sheet that represents the sounds of chorus of black and white.

  The dynamics of black and white are elements of composition. Positive and margin do not confront each other, but coexist.

  Emptiness, Negative, White! These are almost identical. These are needed to maximize the beauty of expressions. In other words, margin means something deeper and truer while including the expressions and expressions are complete only with margin. My spirit is shown in one intuitive stoke that is not limited to meaningless thoughts.

Tone and Rhythm!

  This is the enjoyment of ink and my heart. This is what I enjoy. It is an empty space. Margin! It is filled with empty spaces. It is a full empty space.

  

  Margin!

  It is filled with empty spaces.

  It is a full empty space.

  It is lightly heavy.

  It is a breathing space.

  Because I can fill by emptying,

  I love negative space(margin).