With the advent of September’s back-to-school mood comes the urge to master a skill or make a fresh start. Against this backdrop, Bazaar meets four women determined to challenge themselves, whether by embracing new creative pursuits or seeking out deeper self-knowledge
The fashion designer REJINA PYO on transmuting emotion into art
MY EARLIEST MEMORIES ARE OF GOING TO exhibitions with my mother. They were her playground; she was a fashion designer who became an artist. We would attend all the art openings in Seoul: big ones at the Gallery Hyundai and smaller ones in the Insa-dong area, home to some of the oldest galleries in Korea. I remember when Jean-Michel Basquiat’s works were being shown in the early 1990s. I was about 10, and they were quite shocking to me, because Black people were not common in this country. This opened up possibilities, and the idea that art doesn’t have to be a certain way. All this had a profound effect on me.
I attended Hong-ik, the most prestigious art university in Seoul. The entrance exam is brutal: there are objects randomly placed on a table that you have to arrange and compose beautifully on your canvas, sketch, then paint in five hours. A trail of examiners snake around and judge each painting on first sight, eliminating candidates each round, until only the successful applicants remain. I got in to study four years of textile art and fashion design. It was hardcore training, but I learnt many different artistic techniques. At the time I thought, ‘Where’s the pattern cutting?’, but now I’m grateful that there wasn’t just one element to it. It was much more holistic.
I’ve always had a longing to be an artist, but I just didn’t have the courage to act on it. But then I read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, and it gave me the confidence to start. I now spend every Wednesday at Central Saint Martins. I find that I paint furiously, with urgency – that time is so precious.
Before I moved into fashion, I was more interested in the immersive experience and scale of installation art and sculpture. I still adore them. But because fashion is such collaborative work, I currently love painting, as you’re in control from beginning to end. It’s very much a solo act.
I was originally drawn to creating abstract paintings, but I felt they didn’t challenge me enough. When you look at the work of Willem de Kooning, there are gestural brushstrokes there, but also suggestive figures. The two aspects together make it interesting. I switched to figuration, but if you stand closer to one of my paintings, you can also see the abstraction marks – that way, I’m able to bring together the two visual languages. What’s interesting is that the subject matter i
