Oh Myung Hee

I always hope to express the images in my head and my paintings in various ways, such as through media or three-dimensional work. The reason why I choose bronze as the material here is because, when using materials not only in my paintings but also in three-dimensional works, I do not hesitate to use expensive materials and prefer to create luxurious images. I also choose copper wire, because it is particularly suitable for expressing lines in my work. These works are three-dimensional expressions that I usually express through paintings.

1. This work is very detailed, including making cherry blossom petals with bronze wire and welding and attaching each seed with thin copper wire. The gilded bird on the branch is also made of gilded bronze. Especially, the scarf will be displayed independently as coexisting with the rest of the piece. This scarf is made using a dry lacquering technique that involves mixing clay and lacquer, applying it on hemp cloth and drying it, repeating the process several times. It is a painstaking process that requires a lot of time and effort. At first, I attached the scarf to the tree branch, but later I thought it would be better to separate the scarf, because I wanted to express the scarf like a bird flying towards the cherry blossom tree.

2.In this work, the moon is composed of an aluminium plate covered with gold leaf and lacquer, with a mother-of-pearl bird attached. I made a plum frame out of bronze covered it with cloisonne and then attached backed flowers to it. This represents the shape of the full moon seen between weeping plum branches.

3. Instead of using one large bronze plate, three smaller plates were intentionally connected to add detail. After lacquering the combined plates, I attached mother-of-pearl to them. Branches were stretched out in front of it, making the black plate at the back feel like a tree nest. This work also involved delicately welding and gluing cherry blossoms.