Hyunhee Doh

흔적 and Proof
mixed media and Hanji paper
60 x 60 x 8 in.
NFS

“흔적” stands for ‘what remains as a mark or trace, proving that __________ has existed.’

“Proof” gives a clue for certain truth, past moments, or an idea that may or may not be real.

Every “existence” from past remains in our mind. And there are several ways of recognizing the “existence.”

Some would say that it stays in mind as memory, and their past existence comes from recalling them inside our head. But my definition of ‘existing in past’ comes from what it left where it was. Rather than to remember the past scene inside one’s mind, most re-recognition of past moments come from spotting what remains at present moment – like coffee stains on table or smudge of graphite on desk. Seeing what is actually remaining in present gives different experience than remembering the coffee mug which was sitting on the table 15 minutes ago, or remembering the actions of making notes and drawings in a notebook for last few months on the same desk. The remaining like stain and smudge offers the ‘re-recognition’ of past presence, and it becomes another experience, re-entering the fact that the existence was truth.

I distinguished two types of remaining that ‘existed things’ leave behind them, into “흔적” and “Proof.” “흔적(heun-jeok)” is a Korean word that stands for what remains in comparatively subtle way. This is an ignorable, passive kind of statement that indicates what has existed in past. And “Proof,” as it has to say, represents more active evidences that involves stronger intention of showing its past existence. I discovered that the two ways of expressions explain very different nature of pure definition in its reality. Concentrating on different traces from ‘past,’ the less abstract nature of ‘existence’ gets uncovered.
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© Hyunhee Doh