Riew, an artist from Seoul with his feet firmly on the ground.
Today I’m with the friendly Riew, a nearly 30-year-old man born in Seoul “my father is a professor, usually here in South Korea, every 7 years whoever teaches at the university can take a sabbatical, a year off from daily work. I was about 17 when, one day, he asked me…Do you want to go to the USA? So together with my family, we moved to live in Washington. I liked being in a completely new and different environment and I thought it was a good idea to stay a little longer. My parents returned to Seoul after a year and I continued my American stay for another 7. It all happened quite spontaneously, I hadn’t planned this kind of experience.
Living in the US has been really interesting, with its ups and downs. Being in a different country, surrounded by people from all over the world taught me a lot: this mixture of cultures was for me like I was traveling in different countries at the same time but without having to move, staying in a single place. My friends and schoolmates came from various parts of the world, with very different experiences and lifestyles between them and mine, a period that I remember as extremely stimulating and prolific. I’ve always loved this kind of cultural mix.
I finished high school in Washington and then went to college in Ohio where I studied art for another 4 years.
I lived in a small town in Ohio, no longer in a big city like Seoul, one of the largest megalopolis in the world. This big difference also had its negative and positive implications: there wasn’t much to do, sometimes everyday life was a bit boring, but this new lifestyle led me to discover how to be able to appreciate more the peace and the relaxation that can be found in places like that, much less hectic than my hometown.
I had 2 years to think and decide what I would have studied, at the time I took art classes but I never imagined that I would have graduated from the faculty of art, it is something that happened spontaneously. I was really attracted to this experience connected to my creativity.
I was very interested in conceptual art, I was immediately fascinated by the idea of being able to express my thoughts, what I had in my mind, in different ways: this was the reason why I chose this type of university studies.
Conceptual art has also allowed me to learn to think more deeply: in this field, everything is related to ideas, how to express them creatively and learn to realize what you want to say in different forms and through the use of different mediums.” We have to dig deep, which is always very good for the soul, as I see talking to people like Riew.
“I’ve created works such as sculptures, paintings, photographs and even made performances. At a certain point, I understood the importance of balancing technique and ideas, that is, how to use the various tools to share the concept I had in mind. So I decided to learn more to be able to express myself in an even better and more direct way.” In art as in life, just an idea is not enough, you need to know how to make it happen and put it into practice, but it all starts with what we have in mind and what we want to conceive.
“They were interesting experiences: expressing myself by creating something new, creating it from nothing, allowed me to understand the very essence of creativity and the creative process itself, an almost spiritual experience that changed me a lot. It changed the way I think, it allowed me to grow as a person. Art for me is life itself, it is expression and communication, a way through which you see and live your life, I consider art as a lifestyle.
Love and passion are fundamental when it comes to living. I live as if every second were a new artistic performance, every second that put one together with the other builds my life, something not necessarily to be shown to others with some particular work or making a public exhibition. Art is not just related to the creation of a physical object.
I also spent a full semester in Europe, studying at a university in Denmark for a school architecture project. One of the things I realized during this experience is that Korean society has probably developed too fast, things here change really fast, sometimes it can be something good: everything here is pretty efficient and works well, we are quick in solving problems. But I think some things take time. You need a balance, you have to progress step by step. I’ve seen that while I was in Europe where culture has been built in stages. Everything is more connected and has developed over time in a way that we can feel is more natural. But here in South Korea, it was like a boom! Changes are rapid here, in recent years and still today. But again, it can also be a positive feature. Think about the efficiency of the delivery service here!!” He laughs, remembering the myriad of scooters, vans and people on bicycles that go around the South Korean cities delivering packages of all kinds on time, quickly and with extreme reliability every day.
“Once I finished university I went back to Seoul, I was about 22 years old. I was very happy to be home again, this is a fun and very lively city.
Here I had to start my military service, which was for almost 2 years. An experience that creates a feeling of detachment from everyday life, some problem related to hazing, and the feeling that you are kinda wasting time, something quite common to everyone on this adventure. But despite everything it was a very interesting time of my life that taught me a lot, I had a lot of fun. I was in the KATUSA (Korean Augmentation To the United States Army) program, Korean soldiers were sent to help and work together with American units in my country: I felt like I was still in America.
I then started working in an architecture and interior design studio for another couple of years, then I decided to quit and take a break and travel for a few months.
I then returned here to South Korea and began my new career in the financial sector, first in an insurance company and then in my current job, again in the financial investments field. I needed something new. It is something totally different from being an artist, but it is a new way of building my life, a more realistic way. However, I still see it in a creative way, as if I were drawing my life and this time also the ones of other people, as I’m an advisor, a financial consultant.
My job allows me to talk to many people, from the most different backgrounds, listening to their stories, their financial situations, their lives and their problems is a really interesting thing. I grew up in a middle class family, not rich but without too many problems, and even the people I’ve always been surrounded by were, more or less, with the same lifestyle. Now I listen, thanks to my profession as a consultant, to all these different stories from mine, I have seen that in this world there is much more than I thought. Money is essential in this society. Before, when I was younger, I didn’t give much importance to money, now I have completely changed my mind, also thanks to this work experience. Many of the problems we have in our modern societies are related to lack of money. For example, people come to me who must have some kind of surgery because they are ill, but unfortunately, they do not have the money for this type of thing, together we look for the right way to find the money they need.
I believe that money is something in relation to our life, in relation to the happiness of the people in this current system where we all live. You don’t need to have too much, but still, need enough to be happy and cover the necessary expenses.
I’m studying different things and strategies related to money, we cannot separate money from our life, it is something now interconnected with our existences, and it is also in relation to our freedom.” Ours is a strange world, money is now an integral part of our existence, we cannot do anything without it, it’s connected to our freedom but at the same time, money can take it away from us, especially if we are not able to detach ourselves from it. We spend so much time trying to make money or thinking of a way to make it that we almost forget to live our lives.
“I want to explore the finance field more deeply and learn a lot more about investing. I hope to do something bigger in the future, maybe start my own business.
I also want to travel the world once the conditions allow it.
I think a lot about freedom and how to earn it.
I always try to keep my mind open, as much as possible and to always be creative.
I am a spiritual person but not a religious person.
I think it’s important for everyone to be able to learn to listen to others more, accept new and different ideas from other people and be able to admit being wrong… even if it’s not always easy.”
