Lost In Jewellery Magazine
The 'Voice' of the month of November 2020 is Korean Artist Hye Jung Sin
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'Late Fall Leaf' Brooch Sterling Silver Artist Hye Jung Sin Ph: Jeong Woo Lee
"I pay attention to the fact that nature is a language of humankind
that is absolutely free from the borders of regions and cultures,
and that its mysterious beauty is the most charming of subjects,
which cannot be removed from human art.
I believe that nature is a playground full of pleasure
and the base of infinite imagination.
When I feel and observe nature, having left my busy daily life behind,
its beauty and wonder always give me a newly creative inspiration.
When considering that today,
humans keep a farther distance from nature than in the past,
I believe that as we experience the essence of nature,
it becomes fresher and more unfamiliar.
Thus, it comes to me with a charm that cannot be ignored.
In my work, I have focused on two aspects of nature.
The first aspect is the creation and destruction of nature,
and the second its formative features.
Natural objects have their own unique structural features
that are distinguished from objects made by humans that imitate such features.
I think about how I can catch such infinitely free features
and express them using metal with its inherent coldness.
When I step into nature, I find myself picking up leaves and observing them.
Meanwhile, I get to talk with nature, expand my imagination, look back at my numerous hours of labor, and reflect on mistakes that occurred during this time. Then, all of them end up enfolding the cold metal
and reforming it into a warm, spontaneous, and poetic natural appearance.
Therefore, in my work using metal, nature is reborn freely, flexibly,
and strongly, like the brush strokes of a master calligrapher."
Hye Jung Sin
brief interview to Hye Jung Sin
1. Where is your inspiration coming from ? à I am inspired by nature. I like to express natural shapes, textures, and colors in various techniuqes of metal craft.
2. What are you trying to communicate with your Artwork? à I am interested in re-creating a dying nature in metal. The natural things I express in my work look soft and fragil. I create my works, agonizing over how I express their soft beauty in cold metal.
3. Which material do you prefer to use and why ? à I usually use sterling silver. Its brilliant color has wonderful charms to inspire my imagination infinitely. It is a proper material to express organic shapes of nature and its eternal beauty. In my ‘Nature of Others’ series, I used natural things directly as objets (after drying natural things, I coated them with resin, and then used them with silver). The natural things I used present a new visual beauty in harmony with silver.
4. How much value do you give to researching material for your creations? à New materials are always interesting. But what is most important in my work is if a new material is proper for me to re-create the subject I try to express newly.
5. Is it more important for you the process, or the final Artwork itself? à Usually, I work following my first sketch. But sometimes there are cases in which my pieces are made differently. I like to describe the beauty of nature, so I always stay away from artificial shapes, textures, and colors. While I make a piece, I sometimes omit or exaggerate some shape impromptu. Thus, for me, the process of making a process matters.
6. Is there an Artist you prefer & admire and why ? à Leonard Urso is a professor at R.I.T. in the US. I learned a lot from him as a student. He is my mentor who has encouraged and heartened me to develop as an artist. The subject matter of his work is the human body. He puts an outstanding sculptural beauty in his work. Most of all, his works give off a warm and beautiful human love, which is very impressive to me who is an artist who portrays nature. His poetic beauty has influenced my work.
7. Have you ever thought to collaborate with other Artists , or do you like to work on your own? à I look forward to having a chance to collaborate with artists in other genres. I think that such a chance will contribute to expanding my art world.
8. Where do you feel you are at with your last Art collection? à Winter is coming now in Korea. The changes of seasons are very important in my work. I have been recently inspired by dry living things that were found as summer changed to autumn. All natural things harbor their own unique beauty and story as they head toward death, but the beauty and story is inexplicable. I brood over how I could contain beauty and story in my jewelry work.
9. What have you discovered about yourself as an Artist along the years ? à My daily life is very ordinary, but there are times when the ordinariness is very special. The moment when the ordinariness is very special is when I am sitting at the ‘Jewelry bench,’ feeling the emotion of a heroine who is treated specially on a stage. My work seems like a stage that makes me special. I enjoy making my work, and feel blissful. When I was young, I dreamed vaguely of being an artist. I think it is a great luck that I chose the genre, contemporary jewelry, out of many art genres, and that I have created works of art in the genre so far. I hope I will continue advancing my career.
10. Two words to describe your last Artwork collection. à Nature and poetry.
