Until recently, my work has been about combining wood with nails or steel bars, integrating them into geometrical shapes such as a sphere, a hemisphere or a cylinder. Whenever I do this, one of my troubles is keep nails and bolts out of sight.

On the contrary, I now put an emphasis only on nails. I drive countless nails into wood, bend them, grind them, and then burn the wood, making nails protrude and at the same time blackening its growth ring and natural color. Then glittering metallic nails on the black charcoal become ever more conspicuous. Through this process, I draw a picture on wood using nails.

It may be those that make a hard living who make this world a beautiful place. I certainly do not have the power to make it beautiful. I just hope to make those things that are seen beautiful.

It may be a rusty bent nail. If you take a close look at it, however, you'll find how beautiful it is.
-Lee, Jaehyo

*image (left)
courtesy of the artist and M Art Center