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How Cho's art expresses emotional turmoil
Cho's painting is about emotional individuality experienced through all different aspects of her personal and political history.
She uses natural materials in her work e.g. rice paper, ash and cotton muslin; these materials are very fragile and vulnerable but at the same time represent a strong existence. They are part of the human existence and become a personal, creative experience. Cho started using ash in her paintings few years ago. The ash, produced by burning former belongings e.g. old photos, letters, catalogues, paintings or drawings, legal documents and papers which showed the artist's name and address. Their presence of unforgettable stories of the ash for Cho's memory is now embedded in the paint of her canvasses.
The ash has become a moral and aesthetic substance in the painting which she has produced and beyond, the idea of ash carries its potential past, the knowing and unknowing of personal and historic events. The ash has turned the surfaces of paintings into a strong symbolic association. As her home country is divided into 'North' and 'South' the situation has influenced the culture and society, it has unconsciously ruled her life from childhood. Now, although she lives in Britain she is still heavily affected by the reality. More recently emphasised, Cho's work process sheds light onto painful experiences of emotional turmoil through a couple of national art events where political issues were involved.
She has been working with the concept that "deep sorrow is ultimately peace and deep misery is ultimately joy".
By Dagmar I. Glausnitzer-Smith
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