BRUSH/MIND/EAST/WEST
Artist Statement
I was very pleased when I was invited to exhibit my work in Jeju, Korea. I had visited Jeju two years ago, as director of a mural exchange project between Santa Rosa, California and Jeju City, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the two sister cities relationship. As a result of that very positive experience, I returned to Jeju last year to visit new friends and learn more about the culture and history of Jeju. Learning about the 4.3 massacre left a deep impression on me, and as an artist, I wanted to have the opportunity to create artwork that related to both nature and the history of Juju. When I learned that my exhibit would concur with the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the 4,3 Incident, I was inspired to begin a body of work dealing with what I knew about that event. My aim was to create artwork that reflected, through the use of symbols, icons and color, the struggle, fracture and suffering connected with that hurtful event in the Jeju’s history; but in addition, I also wanted to incorporate a visually positive element of prayer and healing to the work; acknowledging what was lost and adding hope for renewal.
In the news at the time, there were reports offering the slight glimmer of hope for normalized relations between the two Koreas. They gave me the courage and inspiration to work within a theme: a coming together of separate pieces through a unifying element – the circle = prayer.
Making a circle with a brush and ink is always a risk: it requires courage, confidence, and some faith. It does not require skill, or prayer, although experience is very helpful and a prayer couldn’t hurt. The process however, is always like a prayer to me, because it focuses one’s complete and sincere attention on the completion of the task at hand.
Almost every piece in this series involves assembling 9, 12, or 16 square pieces of paper, painted or collaged onto a larger piece, forming a grid. Each initial square is executed separately and without regard to the other pieces except that they have elements in common such as color, pattern, etc. Each one is designed to be unique but having similar qualities to its neighbors. Some of the color and patterns are meant to suggest clothing people might have worn, the passage of time, suffering and healing.
Some of the designs I used, based on old fabrics, are also arranged in a basket-weave pattern, suggesting the interconnection of people and culture. In every piece the circle brings the separate elements together creating a wish for the future… in essence a prayer.
A few pieces actually include one or more layers of fabric, a veil, usually used for wedding dresses, etc. They are superimposed on a sheet of paper that has a portion of the Buddhist “Heart Sutra” or “Banya Simgyeong” in Korean, that I copied from a woodblock print given to my wife by a Korean monk at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. I thought that this Essence of Perfect Understanding would be a perfect companion to a circle: a prayer for understanding. Brushing a circle on the wedding veil added an additional poignancy: the optimistic beginning of a wonderful future.
An artist’s work springs mainly from his imagination, however, in creating this body of work, my heart and friendship played such a major part, that maybe the title for the exhibit should have been changed to Brush/Heart/East/West. In Asian writing, the character for Heart is the same as for Mind so it’s all the same.
Mario Uribe
April, 2008