‘Art has no borders or perfection.’
Artist: 조미정 / Cho Mi Jeong
Artistic style: Intuitive digital collages
Cho majored in Flute at a music university and had a career as a professional musician and poet until she suffered from a severe illness, which forced her to take a step back from her professional life, and spending time recuperating at hospital and at home. During this time, in the hope that it would lift her spirits, Cho’s daughter bought her a camera. Talking of this kind gesture, Cho muses, ‘maybe she felt bad for her mother stuck at home and depressed’.
When Cho started to take photos of things, she eventually found herself becoming curious about the products and the world around her, which she describes as being fresh and new. This marked the start of Cho’s new artistic life, and over time spent focusing on herself and the things she liked to do, Cho happily recovered from her illness. When my health recovered, Cho says, I found that the process of recovery was an opportunity for me to look back on my life, and she asked herself: What is the true worth of my life?
Cho describes the challenges she has faced as ‘growing pains’ and that she is ‘so happy with the journey of finding my identity and myself…and I am happy to communicate with audiences when I showcase my work, finding joy where it leaves someone having felt moved emotionally.
Cho has gone on to win several prizes within Korea, and has been appointed as a professional photographer with the approval of FIAP. She has also won Prizes for International Photography Salon from around 20 countries including Germany, France and the USA (2019~2020). Since 2016, Cho has exhibited her work in several solo and group exhibitions.
Artist Profile
Taking an intuitive approach to photography and image-making, Cho creates digital collages, often featuring a fish character or motif. She is interested in the symbolic potential of the fish: its devotional resonance in Buddhism; the Ichthys, or Jesus Fish, as a mark of Christian faith; as well as its secular meanings, such as health, fertility, long life and luck.
Who are your biggest artistic influences?
The eastern philosopher, Zhuangzi. In ‘Free and Easy Wandering’ which is written by Zhuangzi, an Eastern philosopher, there is a story about a fish (*Korean pronunciation: ‘Kon’) who becomes a bird (*Korean pronunciation: ‘Daebung’) and flies away. When you create something, you will come and go between heaven and hell. But, even though you can’t see the Sun below the sea, it does not mean the Sun does not exist. Even though your current situation might make you feel difficult to endure, the Sun is always with us when we see the sunrise that comes from the dark see. Every sadness and pain will be gone at some point.
I am also inspired by the writer, Saint-Exupery, and poet Kahlil Gibran.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment, I am in the process of making a series of works with the theme of ‘Rhapsody’. As part of this, I am planning to collaborate with artists in various genres of the arts.
The audience said “this is new, fresh and creative” when they saw the ‘Rhapsody’ series.
What advice would you give to other artists who are just starting out?
Don’t be impatient, think of a creative process as a fun activity. When you focus and play it, at some point, you would have created a nice piece of art.
What have you found to be the most challenging thing about being an artist?
The most challenging thing was finding an artist to collaborate with. I have so many ideas and things to experiment.
What has been the most surprising thing about being an artist?
It is an indescribable and irreplaceable feeling when I finally succeed to observe and reinterpret the materials that I didn’t give any attention to before, and making them into the artwork.
What do you hope people take away from your artwork?
In the music sheets, when a note connects to the other note becomes a starting point to finish the piece. Like our lives are not filled with happiness, there won’t be completed piece if there was only a single note. Notes are the composition of the piece with ups and downs. Likewise, I am creating work by drawing various feelings in our lives.’ People have different backgrounds and conditions. I hope my works could reflect their lives and reinterpret them, and become a reason to be communicated with others.
Faye’s comment
Applying the Greek meaning of ‘Rhapsody’ to Cho’s work, by this I mean either epic in the sense of a poem or a tale, and the deep and meaningful expression of feeling, I find her work stirs something in me that I can’t quite properly or easily put into words – have you ever felt like you can hear the artwork?
I look at her work, the above piece in particular, I can almost hear the sound of whale calls, and the sounds of the ocean. It’s an unusual feeling.
The idea of the fish having so many different meanings and symbolic potential is interesting to me, and I’m going to look into that out of curiosity.
The artist can be followed by visiting her Instagram page here: @mijeong.cho