The works of Han Na-Young makes me think of ‘authentic encounter.’ We meet different people everyday and, it's not hard to contact ever. But the meeting I discover in her works is so intimate and sincere that it's not just a meeting but ‘encounter.’ They're like poetry of sentiment and love, so you can see love between mother and children or lovers; friendship and even intimacy between husband and wife.
Her sculptures are supported by these rich themes which have served as abundant and unceasing source of Arts. Most of her marble statues are composed of two parts, right and left, and again each part is divided into upper and lower. It looks like a round moon resting on palms or blooming flowers on flower cups.
The organic and coherent form keeps us reminding of or imagining something else, as if poetic words ripple in our mind. The interesting thing, in her works, is relation between two parts is interdependent like well-woven textile, which means a ‘union’ and ‘correspondence’ are the key in her works.
Those two ideas support and supplement weaknesses of each other. The form itself is coherent not just outside but inside as well. It's like Strings, in orchestra, make a perfect harmony even if each string keep distance from the others. As I said above, she prefers organic and coherent form on the whole, so she uses soft curve, globe and volume than sharply edged ones.
Outline that resemble nature tugs your eyes. We don't know where it's exactly come from, but the soft line serves to make the work more quiet and peaceful. Features of each side is different both in heigh and size. If the artist didn't put interdependent pattern in, they would be awkward.
But the very imbalance, in her composition, looks so natural. They're willing to approach first and confirm that they're special with each other. In other words, different parts meet each other and create synergy effect from that encounter. They produce connection, sentiment and song, which serve as a factor and make us ‘dream.’ Her works are known in the international arena as well.
Because she's got Excellence Award, winning the final among 290 works, in Beijing(北 京) Olympics commemorative environmental sculpture competition which 2400 works had been applied to. She still cherishes this. It's not only a great honor that she went up to the final, beating eminent artists, but also it led to a chance to tour and have exhibition with Alfonso, a kinetic sculpture, whom she'd respected in the 35 cities of 16 Olympic host countries .
Jonathan Edwards, an American esthetic, says “The world is absolutely well organized and created enough to correspond to beauty and harmony.” Beauty comes from the relation among people, among things and part and the other. According to Edwards, things that are beautiful separately but not with all together are fake or limited beauty; things that are beautiful in harmony with the whole the others, in return, are extended excellence or beauty indeed.
It's remarkable that he seeks beauty from these ‘relation’ and put much value on it. The key is, in his writings, not being beautiful but bestowing beauty. Here, we need to face one question; how much we're trying to be close with each other. As you know, always easier said than done, Our life is full of empty talks, meaningless conversation and boring secrets, although we have plenty of books about genuine relationships.
Most of the time it's hard to come to mutual concurrence, because we tend to think and love each other as a supplementary or accessory being of ourselves. Arts serve to remind of lack in life and supplement. Once you feel relaxed and loosen tension with her works, it could definitely be an example on how amazing the power of love and intimacy is.
Love among beings is not wresting or subordination but foundation of free will. It helps us to reveal genuine ourselves. We discover it could carry lots of meaning when Arts encounter with ‘open-minded’ self.