In middle and high school, gaming was my only escape from a frustrating reality. I think it was because they made me forget that I was going through a tunnel that I didn't know when it would end. Looking back, I don't know why I felt so pressured and frustrated, but I remember going to sleep every night and thinking, "What if I ended my life?" I don't know if anyone goes through that. I don't know if everyone goes through that, but it was a very painful time for me. I had sleep paralysis every night, having nightmares, and using alcohol to help me get through the day.

Then I started playing online games. And I became addicted. In hindsight, I think it was the sense of accomplishment in a short amount of time. But the initial satisfaction of easy character progression was short-lived, and I found myself spending more and more time and doing the simple repetitive act of playing. This is the only way to get good items and improve my character. In a world where you can expect and experience tangible results from certain settings, the sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes from repeating the same patterns disconnects players from reality. In addition, the system of competition also traps players in the online world. If you spend five or ten minutes less, it's very visible that you're falling further and further behind in that world. As a result, I was trapped in the online world, doing repetitive labor that was detached from reality.

 

The emotions I feel while working are similar to this experience. When you put in a certain amount of time, the expected outcome is clear and predictable. Also, the repetitive behavior of a set pattern is immediately visible, like earning items. And while the resulting image can be said to be from the real world, it is also a window into a virtual world that is not real. I'm creating another little world in the middle of a big, scary world and playing in it.

 

People ask me if there's a Taoist or spiritual aspect to my work. but they don't ask people who are into games if they're doing it for spirituality or composition. They are often referred to as wastrels, people who have lost their sense of reality and are immersed in the system of the virtual world, and they are seen as something to be rescued. However, players experience satisfaction in the online space that they cannot experience in real life, and they live in that world.

 

For me, the act of doing work is like playing a game. It's an addiction to a world away from reality where I set certain rules and move towards a vaguely expected outcome.

 

Pyoun Daesik graduated from Korea University's Department of Fine Arts, Western Painting, and later graduated from Korea University's Master of Art and Design. The artist has been working with interest in the time inherent in the surface, and is working on materializing time based on his body. Major individual exhibitions include Nuance (Bupyeong-gu Cultural Foundation Gallery Kkotnuri, Incheon, 2022), Equivalence (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2011) and A Series of Moments (Hanwon Museum of Art, Seoul, 2017). And major group exhibitions include Rainbow-Wire 2020 (F1963 Seokcheon Hall, Busan, 2020), Vertigo (Seongbuk Young Art Space, Seoul, 2019), The Accumulated Ghosts (Daecheongho museum of Art, Cheongju, 2019), and Minimal Variation (Seoul National University Museum of Art, Seoul, 2018).​