sssOne early winter day, I was walking. In front of me, there was a gaunt winter tree that had lost all its leaves. On the top there was a magpie nest. A crescent moon was hanging feebly in the cold winter sky. As I was walking towards the nest, there was a moment when it seemed that the new moon was sitting on top of the magpie's nest. I thought to my self, "the crescent moon it taking a rest on the magpie's nest." I stood there like a stature, trying to figure out how I could represent this situation and my thoughts. Then a thought occurred to me and I took a white crayon out of my bag to draw lines around my shoes on the ground where I was standing. I took a few steps backwards and took a photograph. After developing the picture, I pasted it in a sketchbook and wrote below the picture in pencil, "The crescent moon rests on a magpie's nest."

ss

ss

sssEvery morning I go to pray and practice the ritual of 108 bows at the Buddhist temple on the mountain behind my house. On the path I walk, my shadow is always walking ahead of me. It is impossible to pass it. It is "infinity with an end" moving with me. I look upon human life with the perspective of "limits" and "relations." "Time" is a "limit" for humans. People's "relations" play a role of opening human limits through "interactivity." The human, very human (Menschliches, Allzumenschliches) way of existence of "time" and "interactivity" is called a "story." This is because, as Paul Ricœur put it, life resembles a "story." A story is the human effort struggling to keep up with the rapid flow of time, endlessly reproducing significance, just like life.

Kim, Jeong Han 1998.10 m

back m