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 a grip on me is slithering away, showing that it won’t keep hold of me forever. Despite looking past 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.