The artist believed in Santa Claus until the age of twelve. Because she believed, she truly felt the presence of Santa giving her gifts—and resisted those who denied it, fiercely holding on to that belief.

This unconscious experience of clinging to a belief despite external denial would later echo throughout her life in deeper forms—through religion, spirituality, and various belief systems. She passed through Christianity and so-called heretical faiths, only to be repeatedly confronted by doubt.

Yet even amidst these ruptures, she found herself continually creating the next belief. In that cycle, she came face to face with the essence of the human heart—the relentless yearning to believe again.

She calls this longing humanity’s primal “paradisal desire”—a state of believing in nothing, yet simultaneously believing in everything. Her paintings trace the journey of searching for the origin of existence from within this paradox.

While she does not believe that any belief can be absolute, she is certain that it is belief itself that gives life its vitality. And so, even at the end of endless distrust, she chooses to believe in believing—to paint the ache, the yearning, and the fragile courage that rises from it.

The artist has continued her creative practice through various art and collaborative projects, receiving multiple rounds of support from Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Arts Management Support Center.