Zones

My ongoing series "Fallout" and "Fortified...Super Drawing" engage with situations that are often hidden, contested, and fraught with tension. These works explore the consequences of rigid and precarious territorial demarcations. In "Fallout", fragile faux log sculptures, held together only by magnets, symbolize the instability of such boundaries. The work references the 2008 fatal shooting of a South Korean tourist who unknowingly crossed into an unmarked restricted area near North Korea’s Diamond Mountains, exposing the tragic effects of invisible and unyielding borders. In the "Fortified...Super" Drawing series, I draw on traditional Asian landscape painting tropes to depict scenes along the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). These drawings highlight the psychological tension and propaganda embedded in this militarized space, while also underscoring the irony that this contested zone has evolved into an ecological refuge—an unintended sanctuary born from ongoing conflict.