Artist Burns Holes In Paper With Incense Sticks To Make Stunning Pointillist Art

Pointillism is an art form where colorful dots are used to make an image. Jihyun Park is somewhat unorthodox in that he burns the dots out – with an incense stick! Yes, while most pointillists add paint to paper, Park actually reduces the canvas, or, to be more precise, rice paper. This material is famed for its delicate thinness, which makes it a perfect medium for such fragile a tool like burning incense sticks.

For Jihyun Park, the choice of tools carries as much if not more meaning than the images he makes: "The burning of the incense sticks creates emptiness where there once was substance, both in the stick itself and the paper used. <...> This balance of dark and light, emptiness and substance is the essence of ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’ and through this balance utopia is achieved".

He also notes that Korean for utopia is “Yi Sang Hwang” and “Hwang” means “incense”.

More info: drawingcenter.org (h/t: neatorama)