The School Excursion that I Missed

Artist's note

The school in Naepyeong-ri, one of the submerged areas due to the construction of the Soyanggang Dam, moved up the mountain and lasted for several years, but it was eventually closed. Since 1990, the school with this history has started to be used as a workplace or a field of life. The Traces of children who must have been here and there spoken to me. Please call my name... In the spring of winter, I took off the piece of a blackboard that had blocked the broken window because I couldn't prepare for winter in Gangwon-do, which was too cold, and I started drawing two boys. Discover the amazing power of images. The boys seemed to come alive. But it was “abundant absence”.

Introduction

As you enter the white classroom, you see the drawings on the blackboard. You might think that the children who attended Wadong branch school must have drawn them. In fact, the blackboard drawing made somewhere else was brought to Wadong branch school. This is one of many drawings the artist made at a school in Naepyeong-ri, Chuncheon, after it had been closed. The artist drew this in the empty classroom of the closed school, missing the children as if looking for someone in the group photo of a school excursion who missed the trip. Wadong branch school is also closed. That is why the blackboard drawing can be placed here. Or you can say that this drawing is a perfect fit for this school.