Nestled in the depths of South East London lays a space of tranquillity and solitude. Here, artist Jinyong Park absorbs herself in her painting, often losing track of time as days pass in the blink of an eye, or the stroke of a brush. However, this isn’t necessarily an issue when the artist lives just 5 minutes away from her sanctuary of “temporary isolation”. This also means that going to the studio is never seen as a chore but rather an action met with sentiments of relaxation and comfort, Park explains to me. In fact, this space is complexly entwined with the artist’s emotions, having become part of her existence. When moving in, Park painted the walls and admits that she feels as if her own body has moulded to fit the space, with her thoughts on language and communication engulfing the room from wall to wall and in each smear of paint on the floor. Fitting for someone who concerns their artistic practice with words, a desk occupies much of the space, this being where Park meticulously draws and paints her visual translations of sound to create a language of her own. Rulers, compasses and sharp instruments are strewn across the surface of the desk, accompanied by a small acrylic cabinet in which templates of shapes are stored, these forming a pile of unspoken possibilities in syllables and phonemes. The artist savours the silence of her space, communicating with herself in her mind as she sips coffee and breaths in the quietness of each morning. If any sound is made in this studio, it only comes from mid-tempo instrumental music, as the artist finds all the words she needs through her own form of language; the language of her painting.
