Peace among insecurity, to be safe while walking on the streets of a city in northern Mexico . Light and parsimony are elements that are depicted in the work of Korean artist An SoHyun who, without knowing our country, uses Google Maps images to draw popular landscapes in Durango.
For two years now, the illustrator has painted the ordinary streets of the northern Mexican city. She saw the one day on the internet and was amazed by them and the multiple colors showing people walking without rushing.
She asserts she has never been to Mexico and her work has only been done through what is transmitted by online images, but the digital dynamic in which she has ventured into is as though the was submerged in a cybernetic exploration journey.
In an interview with EL UNIVERSAL, SoHuyn remembers that when she saw the picture of the first place she painted, the front of what seemed to be a school, the place looked so warm and peaceful, which completely caught her attention despite Mexico is far away from her home.
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Before this first encounter, she only knew that the American continent is very large and that Mexico is known for its vast nature as well as for insecurity and stories related to drug trafficking and cartel wars.
Data from Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) show that, in 2018, Durango had a crime rate of 22,586 per every 100,000 inhabitants. Moreover, 64.7% of the population felt, between March and April 2019, that the state was dangerous.
South Korean artist An SoHyun
has painted everyday life because she thinks that the depiction of touristic and popular places in Mexico is an already perfect work so the landscapes portrayed by her must “shine enough” to reach people so that it becomes unnecessary for her to paint them again.
“I think it is the duty of artists to find beauty in something ordinary that is far away from people. Hence, I look at the scenes every day and paint. I want to show that even a small place in your way can be a beautiful image,” said the artist who studied at the Korean Academy of Arts.
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The artist, who lives in Bucheon, South Korea, has become famous for her works depicting daily life .
When the web browser shows a woman cleaning the sidewalk at her home at Madereros streets in Durango’s Santa María neighborhood, the artist reinterprets the scene and creates an image with bright colors that remind of a landscape that exists between dreams and magic.
As of the colors she uses in her creations, she asserts that she likes “bright materials” because they reflect hope, humanity, calm, and warmth. Although some people say her work makes reference to Edward Hopper, she says she distances herself from other artists as much as possible because she wants her pieces to be completely original.
What she truly wants is for people to adopt her works for that is how they acquire meaning since she only paints the landscapes with as much realism as possible. “I only paint; I think later,” she asserts.
What makes her feel proud is precisely the response she has had from Mexicans for they give a message of hope , especially amid the pandemic.
“My works are landscapes of daily life, but if it warms and comforts people’s hearts, I will proud,” she mentions.
A person who lives in Reynosa, Tamaulipas saw her work and told her that, being an inhabitant of northern Mexico, he began to cry when he read about her paintings and that he now thinks popular streets are beautiful. “Watching those place through your eyes makes me happy,” despite the cancer of crime and drug cartels have hit the Mexico-U.S. border for over 10 years.
In addition to the internet and social media, some Mexicans have been able to see her works in person since some pieces were recently featured in an exhibition.
The comments were positive and mentioned the pieces accurately expressed the feeling of Mexico, in addition to being hard to imagine an artist from South Korea had made them. “They said they thought my painting was made by someone living in Mexico, but they were surprised I made them by watching Google Maps.”
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