People 1986

Se-Ok Suh made "People" using ink, and you can see how the image builds through repetition. I imagine him carefully making one mark after the other, building a network of interconnected forms. There’s something mesmerizing about the monochrome palette, like he’s distilled the world down to its simplest components. I wonder what he was thinking about while he was making this. The figures are simple, like pictograms, and they give the impression of a continuous pattern. The ink is thin in some places, thick in others, which adds to the overall texture. The brushstrokes have a life of their own, communicating feeling through their varying widths and densities. This work reminds me of other artists, Agnes Martin for instance, who explored similar themes of repetition and pattern. Artists are always talking to each other this way, across time and space. Painting is a way of working through things. It's a way of embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing us to find new meanings and interpretations.