Artist Note — Orbit (2026)

 

ENG ｜ KOR

 

 

 

 

The Orbit Series explores the nature of inner balance and the conditions under which it can emerge. Here, inner balance is understood as a condition sustained by an appropriate distance. It takes shape when distinct presences remain in relation without breaching one another’s boundaries. The intervals between them are not merely physical gaps, but the minimum conditions that allow each presence to retain its integrity. In the paintings, this condition becomes visible through the spacing and arrangement of planetary forms.

 

Within the series, “orbit” functions as a conceptual device for visualizing how distance organizes relation. The work borrows from astronomical orbits the principle of sustained intervals, while setting aside the model of a single, absolute center. In some scenes, a localized center appears temporarily; in others, the intervals between planetary forms come to the foreground without any center at all. What matters is not whether a center exists, but how distance is formed between presences. Orbit, then, refers less to a trajectory around a center than to the relational intervals between planetary forms. The forms do not directly illustrate forces of attraction or repulsion. Rather, they suggest how such forces generate and regulate distance.

 

The planetary forms may be read as people or emotions. Through them, the series explores distances between one person and another, between the self and its emotions, and among emotions themselves. Planets placed too close together or gathered into dense clusters suggest boundaries under pressure. Those maintaining measured intervals, by contrast, reveal conditions in which distinct presences can coexist without losing their separateness. The series thus locates inner balance not in the forms themselves, but in the intervals that allow them to remain together.

 

This balance becomes visible differently according to the scale of each scene. In monumental settings—palaces, surreal interiors, vast landscapes, stairways, and spaces suspended above water—it is articulated through the spacing and arrangement of planetary forms. Within these scenes, the planets may be read simultaneously as people, emotions, or relational presences, bringing psychic states and social structures into the same pictorial field.

 

By contrast, smaller planetary forms placed on bowls, desks, beds, or windowsills do not foreground distance as explicitly. Instead, they allow balance to be encountered on the scale of everyday life. These scenes suggest that balance is not confined to monumental structures, but may also be discovered in small and ordinary moments of daily existence.

 

The Orbit Series does not propose a single ideal balance or a fixed answer. The appropriate distance required for coexistence differs from one relationship to another. Balance is therefore not determined by a universal measure; it takes shape differently within each relationship. In the Orbit Series, maintaining an appropriate distance becomes a way of defining inner balance itself. This balance is neither absolute nor permanent. It must be continually recalibrated as relationships change.