spirit illness: beer

spirit illness: beer (2020) | 120cm x 90cm | acrylic, hand dyed cotton threads on raw canva

‘Spirit Illness: Beer’ was inspired by the feeling of being consumed by something beyond your control. Too much for too long and over many unwanted drunken nights, it felt like I had become the beer itself. This loss of control, chaos, and imbalance was caused by a ‘spirit illness’ that I had experienced for many years. However, the snake that once took grip on me is slithering away, showing that it won’t keep hold of me forever. Despite looking past at what’s happening with concealed eyes, the withering of the aloe flower provides a feeling that an end to this pain is coming.

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spirit illness series

The Spirit Illness series explores my long-suffering of a spiritual and metaphysical experience. For most of my life, I endured a series of unexplained symptoms such as undiagnosable depression, extreme fatigue, alcoholism, dreaming and seeing of spirits, and precognitions. Finally, I was diagnosed with a culturally-specific spirit illness, known in Korea as ‘Sinbyoeng’ (신병). The Spirit Illness series began in 2019, and fortunately, the symptoms were diagnosed and treated successfully through a shamanic ritual in July 2020.

​The series mostly includes self-portraits with snakes and animal symbolism. It is a growing body of work, as there are many more stories yet to be told.

spirit illness: the hunt (2020) | 120cm x 90cm | acrylic, hand-dyed cotton thread on linen.

spirit illness: slump (2020) | 90cm x 120cm | acrylic, hand-dyed cotton threads on raw canvas.