Dakyo Oh continues to explore the relationship between nature and human existence through earth, a primordial material. Her artistic journey began with a small moment in everyday life—looking down at the soil in a round flowerpot while caring for a plant. The sense of cosmic depth she perceived within it led to an interest in the energy and symbolism held by earth, and she soon began to focus on its materiality, tactility, and the time condensed within it.
For the artist, earth is not merely a material but the foundation of nature itself, the stratum of cyclical return to which humans are born and eventually return. She layers, scrapes, and allows earth, sand, mineral pigments, charcoal, and other natural substances to permeate the surface, letting the subtle movements that nature generates on its own settle into the work. These processes evoke the slow unfolding, fading, and repeating rhythms through which natural forms emerge over long periods of time. The principles of nature meet the physical qualities of the materials, generating a new sense of vitality across the surface.
Her work begins from direct encounters with the sea, forest, or land. Yet it does not aim to reproduce nature; rather, it seeks to capture the quiet shifts and delicate vitality discovered within it. The traces left by waves, the reflection of a forest upon wet ground, and the moment a fallen leaf sinks back into the soil—such small scenes open her sensibilities toward nature. Through the materiality of earth, she translates these sensations into a visual language that is both solid and soft.
In her recent works, she looks more deeply at the forms of nature encountered amid climate change. Drying leaves, reeds infused with the color of light, and the transformations of small lives that wither and disappear reveal to her the beauty embedded in finitude. Through the temporality and sense of place inherent to earth, she delicately records the shifts she perceives in contemporary nature. By working with earth, she invites us to recover the natural sensibilities we have forgotten, opening a window through which we may once again gaze at nature and breathe alongside it.