"Expressing a particular place with materials which belong there."
Starting an experiment of this thought at the central Kamogawa River in 2010, he has been creating his paintings by traveling to different places such as Tamagawa River, Ibogawa River, Yodogawa River, River Thames, La Saine, and the Seto Inland Sea.
Last summer, Yoon made a trip through Kamogawa River in order to physically experience the whole stream and sceneries. He collected the sand and stones at 9 points of Kamogawa River; from the headstream down to the meeting point with Katsuragawa River. Then he fired those collected sand and stones at various temperatures from 200℃ to 1,280℃in search of the colors which he was looking for. The colors of sand change depending on its constituents; ones with iron turn into red. He thoroughly selected sands which have characteristic colors, and processed them into his own pigments, then he painted with them on a canvas in a minimal expression the sceneries of Kamogawa River which runs from ancient times.
The pigments which Yoon makes from scratch are not like the ones at art material shops which have variety in colors, and are there for any purposes, but with less choice of colors and imperfections.
However, Yoon found that even from those commonplace things like "sand", beauty can be extracted by processing them with an elaborate manner, and by using them thoroughly he manages to express what he can only achieve with this material. Consequently, his own pigments make his paintings so special which are utterly different from any Fresco or Japanese paintings, and has made it possible to establish an expression of the material which no one has ever seen.
In this exhibition, Yoon also introduces paintings with pigments which are made of Maguroishi from Kamogawa River, which is also used for Raku firing. Yoon who noticed blue tone in this stone ground it into fine powder, fired it and turned that into a pigment. The blue which quietly shines in the gray back ground makes a contrast with red from the sand of Kamogawa River, and that indicates further possibilities of the expression of materials in Ceramic Powder Painting.
Yoon says, "I came to have an interpretation that an act of firing is the most primitive form in which humans could apply irreversible chemical changes to the existence in the world of nature." In that sense, firing symbolizes human activity, and Yoon lays that over the art which is itself an act of human spirit. He fires commonplace things around him, and creates his paintings with pigments made of them.