Pattern Studies - kim heejo

Pattern Studies

A body of work that investigates pattern as a formal principle within Schematic Medium through repetition, arrangement, color, and rhythm

Pattern Studies is a body of work centered on pattern as one of the formal elements of Schematic Medium, exploring how repetition, arrangement, color, and rhythm generate structure within the picture plane. In this series, pattern does not function as a merely decorative device or surface repetition, but as a key formal principle through which visual order and sensory rhythm are constructed. Rather than aiming to represent a specific image or convey a narrative, the work may be understood as a painterly investigation into how repeated forms can simultaneously produce visual structure and emotional atmosphere.

Repetition is the most important formal condition in this series. Dots, lines, symbolic units, small shapes, stripes, and curvilinear marks are repeated across the surface within particular intervals and densities, forming different kinds of patterns. Yet this repetition does not remain at the level of mechanical duplication. Each unit contains subtle shifts—of scale, direction, pressure, color density, or painterly inflection—and these differences accumulate to produce a field that feels active rather than fixed. In this sense, pattern in Pattern Studies is not a static rule, but a structure that generates difference through repetition.

Pattern also functions as a means of organizing the surface. Repeated units divide and connect the picture plane, establishing relations between center and edge, density and openness, concentration and diffusion. In some works, small forms are evenly distributed to create a stable visual order; in others, stripes or directional repetitions give the surface movement and flow; elsewhere, organic traces and irregular arrangements produce looser and more expansive structures. Pattern here is therefore not an ornament laid upon the surface, but a formal device that determines the structure and rhythm of the composition as a whole.

Color is equally important in this series. In Pattern Studies, color is not simply a secondary means of filling in pattern, but a primary condition that defines the sensory character of repetition. Strong primaries, contrasting hues, softer pastel tones, and relatively restricted monochrome ranges each make the density and rhythm of the repeated structures visually distinct. Color intensifies the identity of repeated units, regulates the atmosphere of the whole surface, and, at times, generates different tensions and emotional responses even within the same structural system. It therefore functions as an active formal element that organizes both structure and sensation at once.

The patterns in this series are not only visual systems, but also structures that act upon perception and feeling. The scale of repetition, the rhythm of arrangement, the intensity of color, and the density of patterned units all influence the emotional impression of the work. Within similar repetitive structures, the viewer may encounter very different states—stability, tension, playfulness, concentration, or expansion. In this way, Pattern Studies does not approach pattern only as a formal problem, but also as a means of examining how repetition and color affect human perception and emotion. Pattern becomes here both a structure to be seen and a rhythm to be sensed.

The series also demonstrates how pattern can expand into an independent formal language within Schematic Medium. Basic units—lines, dots, signs, small shapes, and color fields—move beyond their individual identity through repetition and become larger structural systems. Each pattern forms a self-contained visual order within the surface. In this process, pattern is no longer a decorative background or secondary effect, but a way of revealing formal thought itself. Repetition and arrangement become not simply methods of filling the picture plane, but ways of thinking through the picture plane.

As seen in the works, the series includes a wide range of patterned structures: geometric repetition, organic arrangement, striped systems, dotted distributions, and variations of symbolic or image-like motifs. Some works emphasize clarity and regularity; others foreground subtle instability and fluidity within repetition; still others move between pattern and image, allowing more open compositional structures to emerge. This diversity shows that pattern is not a single fixed form, but a formal system capable of countless transformations and expansions through the principle of repetition.

Above all, Pattern Studies makes clear that, within Schematic Medium, pattern is not a secondary feature but a fundamental formal principle. Repetition constructs structure, arrangement produces order, color gives sensory rhythm, and together these elements form an independent visual language within the picture plane. In this respect, the series does not treat pattern as a matter of surface decoration or style, but redefines it as a key form that organizes both pictorial structure and sensory experience.

Ultimately, Pattern Studies is a body of work that explores pattern as one of the formal elements of Schematic Medium through the relations among repetition, arrangement, color, and rhythm. Here, pattern functions not as decorative repetition, but as a central principle that organizes the structure of the picture plane and activates sensory experience. Each work reveals the relationship between difference and order, density and openness, emotion and structure as they emerge through repetition. The series may therefore be understood as an important study that expands pattern into an independent formal language and demonstrates how painting can generate new visual experience through repetition and rhythm.

What is 'Schematic Medium'?

‘Schematic Medium’ is the core methodology penetrating my artistic world. It is a structure of thinking that does not seek to reproduce the essence of the world, but rather to model how the world operates. This term is defined on two levels

Schematic Chart

The left sector of the chart contains a deep exploration into how I dissect and perceive the source of life and existence. Core concepts like 'Origin', 'Universe', 'Nature', and 'Chaos' are interwoven with the physical dimensions of 'Time' and 'Space.' This reveals that I perceive the world not as a mere phenomenon, but by deconstructing it into fundamental forces and orders. Crucially, the Holon philosophy offers an integrated perspective, showing that every entity is both 'the whole and the part', forming the core pillar of my ontological thought. This sector is the solid foundation of my artistic contemplation and the very manner in which I perceive the cosmos and the self.

Featured Characters

In the Schematic Chart, my emanated self, RD (Revolutionary Debris), appears alongside other characters. These characters show how my mind and artistic world are structured, and guide viewers to explore my world with enjoyment. Each character goes beyond being a simple symbol and carries the operating principles of the Schematic Medium and hints about forthcoming works. Through this, viewers do not merely appreciate my work but pre-experience another narrative and the possibility of expansion. In the end, this chart is a map that reflects a dimension we do not see in everyday life. Through it I clarify the way I understand and express the world and offer viewers a new visual and philosophical experience. I wish to share not only simple artistic expression but deep thinking and an original perspective.

BYR 99 Prime Elements

BYR 99 Prime Elements constitutes the most fundamental structural framework of Kim Heejo’s visual language. The series establishes the minimal unit of form through ninety‑nine elements—thirty‑three each of Blue, Yellow, and Red. Each element carries a specific formal code: Blue (square / human), Yellow (triangle / nature), and Red (circle / cosmos), and the relationships among these three elements generate the artist’s visual system.

BYR Organic Schemata

BYR Organic Schemata develops from the structure of BYR Prime Elements and demonstrates the organic expansion of the formal system. Through the combination and variation of the basic elements, new configurations of form and structure emerge. The series moves beyond simple geometric units to explore a more fluid and organic visual order.

BYR Quad Origin

BYR Quad Origin investigates the generative principles of form by reducing the fundamental elements of the BYR system into a geometric structure. Within the relationships between basic forms and colors, the works examine structure, balance, and tension. Through minimal compositions, the series reveals the structural foundation of the BYR visual language while allowing diverse formal variations.

Tri Form Series

The Tri Form Series rearticulates the conceptual structure of BYR Prime Elements as a unified system. Whereas Blue (Gyeok), Yellow (Hyeong), and Red (Gong) were previously presented as independent formative principles, here they are reconfigured to operate simultaneously within a single, integrated structure.

Core Searching series: ‘Semi-Circle & No.9’ Drawing Series

Core-Searching Drawings are early works that investigate the fundamental structure of the artist’s visual language. Through repeated variations of simple forms and signs, the drawings explore the process through which conceptual ideas transform into formal structures. These drawings mark the starting point of a visual system that later expands into painting and object-based works.

Core Searching series: Core Searching Paintings

Core Searching Paintings is a body of paintings that explores bodily movement and performative process through the fundamental formal language of BYR: the color system of Blue, Yellow, and Red, and the geometric structures of the square, triangle, and circle.

Core Searching series: Color Layered Line Drawing Series

“Color-Layered Line” Drawing Series is a body of work in which colored lines, generated through the movement of the artist’s hand across a measured distance, are layered and accumulated on the surface to form fundamental structures and formal relationships centered on the semicircle.