The 2019 InLiquid Benefit is just around the corner! Until then, we will be featuring everything from artists’ works that will be part of the silent auction, to fun items and experiences also up for auction! Stay tuned each day for new features!
InLiquid is coming up on our 20th year in 2019, and for each year we have made sure to promote art in the Philadelphia area that brings both meaning and beauty to our community.
Taesook Jung’s Vigorous Life does just that, by encapsulating the brightest and darkest of the human experience. Jung uses the symbolism with the peonies to represent richness, wealth, and honor; connotations that come from East Asian Art History. The dying earth tries to climb up the stems of the peonies and take away these aspects which they represent, but they persist, vigorously, through the darkness. Like in nature, humans are able to blossom out of hardships. They create beauty out of ugliness.
Jung’s piece is symbolically important without sacrificing aesthetic value. The crisp lines and vibrant colors of the leaves and peonies contrast distinctly with the blurred and black dying flowers in the forefront of the painting. Jung intentionally references traditional Korean scroll art in her painting while adding shading and colors that appear much more modern.
Jung’s flowers can represent not only the resiliency of humans, but also the resiliency of art. We are lifted up by art; we can make art out of the dredges of life and persist in its production despite (and perhaps even because of) the darkness. Jung says she wishes that her “aesthetic energy fully blossoms in [her] life and audiences wish their life will be blossomed like the symbol of [the] Peony.”
You can bring this blossom into your life by bidding on the painting at InLiquid’s 2019 Benefit, occurring February 1st and 2nd.
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