Songs of a Tortoise (Guga)

In the early 1980s, Yoong Bae began creating the Songs of a Tortoise (Guga) series. The works in this series were influenced by abstract Western art, but embedded with East Asian visual traditions, such as the boneless brush technique in which the artist paints forms without outlines. The series adapted Yoong Bae’s unique technique of layered sheets of traditional Korean mulberry paper. To start, Bae placed colored paper pieces under a neutral top layer. Wetting the surface with water and ink, the artist delicately pushed creases into the paper layers with his fingers, exposing the bright hues underneath and creating wave-like patterns. Even the title, Songs of a Tortoise, reflects the time-consuming technical aspect of his works while simultaneously evoking the Korean spirit of perseverance.