We recently connected with Jieun Cheon and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jieun, so great to have you on the platform. There’s so much we want to ask you, but let’s start with the topic of self-care. Do you do anything for self-care and if so, do you think it’s had a meaningful impact on your effectiveness?
Unlike other occupations, artists usually do not have specific working time and resting time. Therefore, most artists, including me, have flexible schedules.
An artist is like a marathoner. It is essential to have our own pace and persist over time. Devotion to creating artworks is the most important, but it is necessary to take care physical and mental health along the way.
In my case, I set a strict working schedule like other vocations might have because my works are usually long-term projects, and they take a great amount of time. I usually arrive at my studio around 9 am and finish working around 6 pm. On Saturday or Sunday, I take one day break from my works and refresh myself. I spend that day going to the exhibitions I want to see, or just going somewhere unrelated to art.
Artists tend to develop problems in their necks and shoulders, and I am no exception. Therefore, I work out three times a week and go to an acupuncture place to get medical checks and massages once a week.
Therefore, these self-disciplinary routine keeps my effectiveness of my works.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am an interdisciplinary artist who focuses on installation art, integrating drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. Through my practice, I explore the paradoxical experiences between the conscious and subconscious.
World-building is my main methodology and the most exciting and accomplishing aspect of my works. I create a fictional world between consciousness and subconsciousness, designated Uncanished Workld, a portmanteau of ‘uncanny world’ and ‘unfinished work.’ This world is represented through literary format, with each drawing or sculpture serving as a word or sentence in the story. I coin specific terms for my fictional world. For example, I describe my paradoxical experiences as the ‘tacit noise,’ not referring to actual noises or auditory hallucinations, but to internal tumults. The story of the Uncanished Workld is my journey of discovering the nature of these tacit noises.
Uncanished Workld consists of several chapters; each has its own title, characters, and settings. All these chapters are interwoven aspects of the same universe. In the latest chapter, Origami Hermit Crab, I create a fictional scenery with complex geometric structures inspired by the concept of fractals, where chaos and order can coexist. This project is inspired by my experience at the Green Wood Cemetery, where, over centuries, people once with different hopes and desires from different races, cultures, and religion all turn to ashes, where the kaleidoscopic phenomena of the life are reduced to the unanimous silence of death, where chaos returns to order. Places like the Green Wood Cemetery echoes with the tacit noise within me. I used to think it was impossible for others to understand and sympathize with my ineffable feelings, but then it occurred me that I might be able to communicate my feelings by recreating my experience in these specific places in my works. The uniformity of the graves at Green Wood Cemetery is coldly orderly, yet my feelings vigorous and chaotic. That is the reason why I choose fractal structure as the form of this work — because fractals are orderly and chaotic at the same time.
I intend my work and mechanism to be super complicated, but the complexity also causes my struggle to explain the concept behind my works. Therefore, I try to categorize layers of culture and theoretical references in my works, summarize them in the overall themes of my works, and connect them to my specific experiences. Honestly, I am still dealing with this challenge, and I try to get objective views from my peers whenever I have the opportunity to present my work.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
For an artist, persistency is a necessary quality. As I said, being an artist is similar to a marathon. That means, the artists should overcome their tardiness to achieve their long-term goals. However, as artists usually do not belong to any specific organizations such as cooperations. There are no regulations, rules, or strict timetables, so it is easy to lose one’s pace and not finish works. In my case, I go to my studio regularly and keep working, even though sometimes I do rough sketches or drafts which are not related to the current work. Those sketches end up contributing to another works.
Second, one of the most impactful skills to me is academic drawing. In middle school, I learned these skills to enter an art high school. These skills are about how to observe objects and how to figure out the relationships of space, light, and so on. If someone is good at drawing, it means that that person has the ability to express whatever he/she wants and apply these sensibilities to other media such as painting. For me, the concept or theme and the visual expressions should match. If the visual expressions do not speak out for the conceptual aspects, then it would be difficult for the viewers to grasp the message of the work. Therefore, I think that it is helpful for artists to have these professional drawing skills.
On the other hand, if the conceptual richness of the work falls short, the work would not be strong either. There are diverse areas of knowledge that are helpful for my art creation, and the most inspiring discipline to me is physics such as the knowledge of time and space. There is an artwork titled 2.().3 dimension: the ghost’s room, which is about a fictional time-space, a mysterious world between the conscious and the subconscious. When I started building up an idea of the fictional time-space, I foun d The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli useful. His book and other references inspired me to fabricate the idea of a fictional time-space, and also find the way to communicate with my viewers. If I just made up the idea without those references, my work would be too obscure to be understandable. However, these communicable concepts allow me to better communicate my ideas.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
There were some people who gave me great help, and my professor in college, Yongdeok Lee is the one who made me overcome my challenges.
There was a time in college when I was uncertain about the core theme and motivation behind my works. It caused troubles whenever I presented my works and attempted to communicate my thoughts with other peers or professors. I tried to ask for advice and help, but it was impossible for others to know the motif behind my works if I myself did not know it. Deep down, I knew there was a specific motivation for my creative practice which came from my personal experiences. However, it was hard to describe that motivation in words, and also it was not comfortable, if not painful, for me to talk about those personal experiences. There were several occasions where I attempted to tell my professors or classmates about these personal experiences during meetings or casual conversations, but none of them took it seriously and some of them even ridiculed it even when I revealed only a tiny part of those experiences. So, especially during junior and senior years, I became afraid of even bringing up these topics and almost lost hope for persisting in making art. All these situations made me depressed and alienated .
However, when I was working on my BFA thesis project, Professor Yongdeok Lee looked carefully at my works and was the first one who grasped my intention and understood my work deeply. Thanks to him, I was motivated again. During MFA, I found the courage to tell my personal experiences in a meeting with him. In that meeting, he listened carefully and thanked me for finally telling the true story. He identified my deepest motivation from my unorganized stories, and he helped me not only get rid of my fears and anxieties, but also regain confidence to keep creating works.
Until now, he is still one of my firmest supporters, and sends messages of support and advice.
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