Park Yelim captures the lyrical and dynamic energy found in nature and transfers it on paper using ink and sand. The artist places sand onto paper to create forms and textures through serendipity, then overlays ink on top using various techniques to visualize nature. Through the repetitive act of painting with ink on the surface of the sand, Park Yelim discovers rich and varied facets of nature and expresses the dynamic energy of nature that feels like it could leap beyond the canvas.

Park Yelim received her Master of Oriental Painting from Ewha Womans University in 2021 and her Bachelor of Oriental Painting in 2024.

The wind in Park Yerim's paintings originates from personal experiences. Recalling the winds encountered in travel destinations or daily life, she captures them on paper with brushstrokes. The wind, grand or modest, blows on the canvas loads or disperses the weight of the adhered sand (both materially and metaphorically). The traces of brushstrokes that have passed reveal the exertion of force followed by gradual dissipation. With the installation of these artworks in the form of a signpost,

the wind not only flows and passes through in all directions but also allows for a meticulous examination of the specific wind within each artwork. The wind blowing within the artworks and in the exhibition space can be described as a recreation of the wind of the past. However, it’s not just a mere transfer; the appearance of the wind doesn’t just stay in that moment. Within the canvas, the brushstrokes not only reveal the wind but also rise like mountain ranges and undulate like waves.

When the wind is visualized in Park Yelim’s work, it appears as mountains or waves. In some instances, it may resemble a layer or a cliff. Furthermore, if it feels like standing on a tranquil beach where gentle waves are approaching the land, it is because it is a result of visually translating the characteristics of the intermediate nature of wind.

In its intermediate nature, like colliding as a mass and flowing as a liquid, the wind experientially carries a sense of volume though invisible—coolness, thickness, humidity, strength, etc. Through our bodily and experiential encounters, the wind is redrawn.

In Park Yelim’s painting process, the wind is (re)drawn from the momentary gesture of trying to reshape past experiences into form and hold them tight in her hand. Through the traces of the force captured in the brushstrokes, the paper, a two-dimensional plane, evokes the wind that can become both solid and liquid.

The wind remains the wind of that moment. However, in this context, that moment does not stop at being a pronoun encompassing all instances but encapsulates individual characteristics. That moment varies each time, even for different people - some may recall a hot day spent abroad a few years ago, while others may remember a day when they left home, hopped on a bicycle, and ventured somewhere for a while.

In the process of recreating the wind, the individuality and specificity of experiences enhance the definition. Through recalling and drawing the wind that was once invisible, in Park Yelim’s paintings, strength and contours are materialized by brushstrokes.

In the act of recreating the absent wind, the wind yearns for that past moment along with the person. Even if the contours appear faint, partially as if fractured, the wind was there, and right now, even after the form is recalled, the wind is still here.

That moment and place experienced through the wind is composed of subtle momentary sensations. Now, the warmth, dryness, overwhelming presence, and the force that have now passed by once again become the wind, starting to blow through Park Yelim’s hands.