Kibong Rhee
His works are always shrouded in mist—hillsides, trees, and water veiled in fog, like a silent, cold, and damp dream that blurs the boundary between the spiritual and the real. The scenes in his paintings seem to be either fading away or just beginning to take shape. He captures the diffused mist in a tangible way—some viewers may feel a sense of tranquility, while others may experience a quiet sense of suffocation.
I had long assumed that the hazy effect was achieved using an airbrush or wet-on-wet watercolor techniques combined with layered masking. Later, when I watched a documentary about his work, I discovered that he actually uses a combination of materials—such as plexiglass, tracing paper, or other transparent fabrics—to mask and layer the image. This revelation was deeply inspiring for me.
It was this influence that led me to begin experimenting with semi-transparent paper in Unit 2, both as a medium for printing and as a way of masking imagery.