Seeing Through the Heart- Joung, Chang-Kyeun’s Water As Clean As a Mirror By Park, Jung-soo/ Art Critic Joung, Chang-Kyeun’s Water As Clean As a Mirror, also the title of his work, pursues the clean spirituality to overcome turbid, corrupt contemporary society, which is a more advanced concept that the principle of non-action or action through inaction in Eastern philosophy. A clean mirror connotes a philosophical meaning to show human’s pure mind and its original value. Joung thus depicts objects on a book instead of the book itself, and focused on a reflected state in the mirror rather than the book and objects. Outwardly, his painting seems to be a faithful reproduction of real still-lifes, but appears as an emotional art peculiar to Korean people who live in conformity with individual sense and nature. Unlike common still-life paintings that feature immovable nature or natural scenery, his work presents reality in imagination. It is not a proper approach to his work to see fruits put in a bowl and flowers on a book as common still-lifes. They cannot be paralleled with flower, fruits, and flower vases we were forced to depict in an art class. Joung’s work is not a mere representation of natural objects. He paradoxically shows that he is one with himself looking at himself within the other by depicting what is seen or reflections in a mirror. Although flowers are well depicted, they are not the real. Likewise, flowers reflected onto a clean mirror are not the real. He puts flowers and fruits on books or unfamiliar items to show something distinguished, rather than to present naturally. Joung intends to heal cotemporary men’s spiritual devastation and to purify contaminated everyday situations through the depiction of his surrounding objects in an emotional, sensuous manner. His work is thus properly away from hyper-realistic representation. In his work still-lifes reflected in a mirror are imbued with Korean people’s emotions and sensibilities amid in conventional metaphysical discourses. His still-life painting is not merely sensuous but encompasses any spirituality pursuing non-action or action though inaction and clearness. Gimyeong-jeolji-do is one of traditional painting genres which was in a heyday in the late Jeseon period. In this style of still-life painting then artists addressed bookshelves, stationery, and old furniture mainly used by literati scholars as its subject matter, and later added flowers and fruits as auspicious signs. Jeong’s Water As Clean As a Mirror can be called a modern Chaekgo-do or painting of books and scholar’s paraphernalia that was often rendered to pursue that mind’s lucidness. Joung shows a subtle mixture of abstruse philosophy and savory sensibility in this work easy to comprehend. His art begins from the visible and seeks the essence of sensibility, trying to discover the principle of sensibility. He admits the state derived from a confrontation between objects and himself, pursuing the law of spirituality. As imitated objects are reflected in a mirror and again imitated, a reflected space remains limitless. Both universal and typical, his work connotes everyday sensibility, transcending something individual. One of his work’s distinctive characteristics is visual naturalness in a state of non-action. He represents a spiritual maturity through the depiction of apples, roses, and thick books, enjoying unrestrained freedom from the visible object placed on the boundless blank space of a mirror. He replaces this empty space for appreciation and imagination with the mirror. Recently, Pop Art, Hyperrealism, and light-hearted narratives are pervasive in the Korean art world. Joung’s spiritual activity stands out in this situation many people are interested in such spheres. His work can be appreciated not by intuition, form, and images but by hidden feelings and emotional function. In his work, the tense relationship is formed by his sensibility and thought, demonstrating a distinctive space composition. Joung seems to understand that all imitations are newly decked by the artist. His work looks unusual but seeks something in common with usual still-life paintings. It brings about spiritual discourses and communication with objects, maintaining their attributes. “A mirror looks unclean when dust is on it, but the mirror appears clean when no dust. Likewise, we can maintain a clear, infallible state when we are with wise men for long.” Zhuan Zi said. In De Chong Fu or Sings of the Flourishing of Potency, he added “We can see ourselves reflected in still water, not flowing water.” Joung has set the departure point of his art here.