Gouttes sur papier journal 2013

Kim Tschang-yeul made this painting of droplets on newsprint, and in it the solid world meets something ethereal. I wonder, was Tschang-yeul thinking about ephemerality and the everyday? The painting captures the strange tension between permanence and the fleeting moment. Like, what is the relationship between water as something transparent and reflective against the words on the page, which are themselves trying to reflect and capture the world! The artist painstakingly rendered each drop, considering how light hits the surface and how each reflects its surroundings in miniature. And the words become distorted by the curvature of the water droplets—the paper’s rigid lines bend and shift, creating a playful dance between reality and perception. It reminds me of Gerhard Richter and his photorealist paintings, where he would blur the images, questioning the nature of representation. Tschang-yeul is also asking us to consider what is real and what is an illusion. It’s a beautiful exploration of seeing and knowing.