Artist Note — Orbit (2026)

ENG ｜ KOR

 

 

 

Orbit Series is a body of paintings that explores what emotional balance is and the conditions under which it can exist. In this series, balance is defined as a state in which an appropriate distance is maintained. It emerges when presences are able to remain in relation without crossing into one another’s boundaries. These intervals are not merely physical spaces between forms, but minimal conditions that allow each presence to remain intact without collapsing. Within the works, this maintenance of distance is revealed through the spacing and arrangement of planetary forms.

 

In this series, “orbit” functions as a conceptual device for visualizing the principle by which distance is maintained. Orbit Series borrows only the principle of sustained intervals from astronomical orbits, while rejecting the model of a single absolute center. In some scenes, a localized center temporarily appears; in others, only the intervals between planetary forms come to the foreground without any center at all. What matters is not the presence or absence of a center, but the distance formed between the forms. In this sense, orbit in Orbit Series does not refer to a line revolving around a center, but to the distances between planetary forms. The planetary forms themselves do not directly depict forces of attraction or repulsion; rather, they metaphorically suggest how such forces give rise to distance between forms.

 

The planetary forms within the works can be read as people or emotions, and through them the series explores states of distance formed between person and person, self and emotion, and emotion and emotion. Planets placed too closely together or densely clustered suggest the possibility of unstable boundaries, while those maintaining measured intervals reveal states in which distinct presences can coexist without losing their separateness. In this way, Orbit Series investigates how balance emerges and becomes visible through the distances maintained between forms rather than through the forms themselves.

 

This balance appears differently depending on the scale of the scene. Monumental spaces such as palaces, surreal interiors, vast landscapes, stairways, and spaces suspended above water reveal balance through the spacing and arrangement of planetary forms. Within these scenes, the planets may be read simultaneously as people, emotions, or relational presences, revealing both inner psychological states and social structures. By contrast, the smaller planetary forms placed on bowls, desks, beds, or windowsills do not foreground distance itself as explicitly, but allow balance to be discovered within the scale of everyday life. These everyday scenes suggest that balance is not something understood only through monumental structures, but something that can also be found within small and ordinary moments of daily existence.

 

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, therefore, is not determined by a single fixed distance, but formed differently within each relationship. In this series, the maintenance of an appropriate distance becomes a way of defining balance itself, and that balance is not absolute or permanent, but something that must continually be readjusted as relationships change.