Treading the boundary between cuteness and discomfort—innocence and hurt—South Korean artist Jinjoo Jo’s illustrations categorical the tenuous relationship people conjure with nature and a private response to a extensively publicized tragedy.
Blue Anger, a sequence Jo started in 2020, portrays younger ladies interacting with bugs, that are unsettlingly giant and imposing. “I’ve at all times cherished nature, however on this sequence, I selected to make use of bugs as a metaphor for predators,” she says. “The younger ladies within the illustrations stare straight forward as bugs endlessly swarm round them. At instances, I see myself as a passive witness to their struggling; at different instances, I step into the paintings and turn into one in every of them.”
Many of the works seen right here belong to Blue Anger, which continues to evolve. Rendered in black, white, and a cerulean blue hue, the primary piece was made in direct response to the so-caled Nth Room case, a horrific cybersex crime that passed off between 2018 and 2020. “On the time, I used to be overwhelmed by anger and despair,” the artist tells Colossal. “The case concerned the sexual exploitation of not less than 70 underage victims, who had been subjected to abuse each on-line and offline.”
Blue Anger serves as a method to course of the energy-draining emotion, in a way making a sort of tribute to the younger individuals who had been victimized. Latest works diverge from the theme of insect-as-predator, reverting management to the younger ladies who as an alternative commune in a pond with a larger-than-life moth or coexist in an illuminated area with fluttering bugs drawn to the sunshine.
Jo primarily employs coloured pencils and graphite, often incorporating black ballpoint pens for darker particulars. She then scans her drawings with a view to full them digitally utilizing Procreate and Photoshop.
Jo has been working for a number of years on a graphic novel associated to ongoing scientific analysis, which is presently in pre-production. She has additionally been engaged on an essay detailing her experiences of being pregnant, which she hopes to ultimately compile right into a small e-book. Discover extra on the artist’s web site and Instagram.
