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Kukwon Woo places a fantastical twist on two biblical scenes.
‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’ combines two popular metaphors for the battle between good and evil. The first is from Psalm 23, a biblical prayer for comfort and strength in the face of evil. The second is from the Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back, the science-fiction blockbuster.
‘Breakfast on the Beach’ is Woo’s rendition of the biblical passage John 21. In his version, Jesus sits under a striped parasol. He is joined at the table by the strawberry-blonde toddler and white dog that recur in Woo’s paintings. Across the top, a verse from the passage beckons you to the feast in Woo’s looping roman script.
To get closer to pure expression, Woo unlearned the habit of writing neatly. His messy script frames many of his canvases with phrases like “a baby is God’s opinion that life should go on” (Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love your tomorrow, 2021). At face-value, it expresses Woo’s excitement as a then father-to-be. However, the words betray their writer’s awareness of life cycles and religion, and therefore mortality and morality. While works like Rainbow is Illusion (2022) are overtly cynical, the lurking existential dread is always softened by the pastel colours and rag-doll texture of Woo’s painting. Like all good fabulists, he excels at the gentle push and pull between knowledge and innocence.
