About this collection
Remembrance of Korean Boyhood
By Chae Tongyull
Chae Tongyull was born in 1951, a time of great uncertainty and poverty in his country. Korea had just emerged from two devasting wars, and his nation was struggling to put together the broken pieces of both their society and collective identity. And yet, it was also a time to rejoice, to build, and to forge new, personal identities. As an artist who left his home for the US in the 1970s, this collection of 320 unique NFTs by Chae Tongyull is a meditation on his own journey through life. As the background on each individual NFT overlaps, reorganizes, and changes over time, they represent a tapestry of the “self” in constant, colorful motion. For both artist and observer, the future we weave is formed by the fabric of the past. Our memories sew our identity.
This collection of 320 unique NFTs are based on the reflections of a young boy growing up in Post-War Korea. They serve as a glimpse into the creative spirit of a nation willing to overcome adversity despite the odds, and a testament to the international artist that young boy would grow up to become. Four original Oil Transfer drawings serve as the basis for this collection, each with 80 unique color variations.
- [Dancing Couple] 80 unique color variations with music
- [Rocking Horse Winner] 80 unique color variations
- [Timid Courtship] 80 unique color variations
- [Bojagi (Korean wrapping cloth)] 80 unique color variations
**Deadline for holders eligible for pre-sale 6th Aug. am1 2023(EDT, GMT: -4)
https://twitter.com/orangehare_io
🍊 Event Notice 🎨
Chance to win a real artwork of Chae Tongyull worth as much as an NFT through minting!
📸 Etherscan snapshot time : 31th Oct. 2am(EDT, GMT: -4)
🤩 EVENT RULES:
- TOP 2 COLLECTORS WITH MOST NFTS IN ONE WALLET GET 1st CHOICE
- COLLECTORS SELECTED AT RANDOM COLLECTED 4 EACH WORKS IN TOTAL
🎁-ORIGINAL ARTWORK WORTH $1750 EACH
** Collector who purchase each 4 & more works , please fill out a certain form on the relevant Google form to receive the prize(a real artwork). If you fill out the form, we will contact you individually via Discord, and all recipients of the actual work will be notified through a notice!
Remembrance of Korean Boyhood
By Chae Tongyull
Chae Tongyull was born in 1951, a time of great uncertainty and poverty in his country. Korea had just emerged from two devasting wars, and his nation was struggling to put together the broken pieces of both their society and collective identity. And yet, it was also a time to rejoice, to build, and to forge new, personal identities. As an artist who left his home for the US in the 1970s, this collection of 320 unique NFTs by Chae Tongyull is a meditation on his own journey through life. As the background on each individual NFT overlaps, reorganizes, and changes over time, they represent a tapestry of the “self” in constant, colorful motion. For both artist and observer, the future we weave is formed by the fabric of the past. Our memories sew our identity.
This collection of 320 unique NFTs are based on the reflections of a young boy growing up in Post-War Korea. They serve as a glimpse into the creative spirit of a nation willing to overcome adversity despite the odds, and a testament to the international artist that young boy would grow up to become. Four original Oil Transfer drawings serve as the basis for this collection, each with 80 unique color variations.
- [Dancing Couple] 80 unique color variations with music
- [Rocking Horse Winner] 80 unique color variations
- [Timid Courtship] 80 unique color variations
- [Bojagi (Korean wrapping cloth)] 80 unique color variations
**Deadline for holders eligible for pre-sale 6th Aug. am1 2023(EDT, GMT: -4)
https://twitter.com/orangehare_io
🍊 Event Notice 🎨
Chance to win a real artwork of Chae Tongyull worth as much as an NFT through minting!
📸 Etherscan snapshot time : 31th Oct. 2am(EDT, GMT: -4)
🤩 EVENT RULES:
- TOP 2 COLLECTORS WITH MOST NFTS IN ONE WALLET GET 1st CHOICE
- COLLECTORS SELECTED AT RANDOM COLLECTED 4 EACH WORKS IN TOTAL
🎁-ORIGINAL ARTWORK WORTH $1750 EACH
** Collector who purchase each 4 & more works , please fill out a certain form on the relevant Google form to receive the prize(a real artwork). If you fill out the form, we will contact you individually via Discord, and all recipients of the actual work will be notified through a notice!
This collection of 320 unique NFTs are based on the reflections of a young boy growing up in Post-War Korea. They serve as a glimpse into the creative spirit of a nation willing to overcome adversity despite the odds, and a testament to the international artist that young boy would grow up to become. Four original Oil Transfer drawings serve as the basis for this collection, each with 80 unique color variations.
With a color palette as rich as his life story, the works of Chae Tongyull are steeped in literary symbolism and rooted in a deep appreciation for romantic adventure. Born in Busan amidst the Korean war of the 1950s, Chae has travelled the world, eventually seeking his fame and fortune within the U.S. In his twenties, he was the founder of the “Idists” movement, an expressionist group based out of New Orleans. Later, he would move to New York city to become one of the only Asian (and only Korean artists) within the East Village art scene of the 1980s, where he was a contemporary of legends such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Since 1993, he has travelled and painted extensively within the Himalayas, exploring remote regions in China, Tibet, Nepal, and India. His works gain inspiration from a diverse range of classic artistic and literary traditions: the prose of Shakespeare, mysterious legends from Korean folklore, the eccentric brushstrokes of Chinese Calligraphy master Pa-Ta-Shan-Jen, Buddhist philosophy, and much more. Because of their rich texture and unique subject matter, his art has been praised and collected for its value in straddling both American and South Korean cultural identities, as well as various places in between. Recently, he is also enjoying working on oil transfer drawings.
This NFT collection is based on digitized animations of real Oil Transfer Drawings completed by Chae Tongyull in 2021. At the time of creation, he had no idea what the final form would take. Oil Transfer drawings are based on a surrealist art technique dating back to the beginning of the 20th century called “automatic drawing.” For this method, artists often attempted to create art through unconscious means to reveal the hidden “subconscious inner workings” of their mind. Paul Klee is credited as one of the first artists to use “Oil Transfer drawings” in which a painting is created unconsciously though oil before transferring to paper.
Inspired by this, Chae Tongyull employed the same technique to explore his own inner mind. Therefore, when creating his own Oil Transfer Drawings, Chae could not know what the final shape would be. According to the spontaneous movement of the hand and the inner working of the subconscious mind, shapes begin to form. What emerged was memories of a Korea struggling to rebuild itself, long philosophical talks about DH Lawrence’s short stories, cautious relationships on the playground, and dancing with lovers. In other words, “Remembrance of Korean Boyhood” was born.
From ballrooms of high society to open-aired fields after a harvest, when it comes to dancing, every culture has their own customs. And even though the rules may change as we take on new dance partners at different times (and places) in our life, for young lovers the world over, the intentions always remain the same. Isn’t it nice to embrace someone else for a night, safe in the ecstasy of sound and movement? And do you ever wonder what became of your old dance partners?
This work is inspired by English author D.H. Lawrence’s short story by the same name, a favorite of young Chae’s during his schoolboy years. In the scene, an innocent child attempts to help his struggling mom financially by riding a rocking horse over and over again until he can predict the winning numbers for an actual horse race, to tragic effect. It is a story of 20th century class struggle, social mobility, and the “fall from grace” of families that once had everything. For the young Chae, whose own upper-class family lost everything after the war, this story holds special meaning.
Maybe you remember the name of your first crush, maybe you don’t. Recent memories are vivid. You can remember faces, places, names, and moments. As time passes, things become fuzzy, faces confused, places mixed up, until all that’s left is the feeling. But who can forget the feeling of their first schoolyard crush? That’s one that never leaves you. In this scene, a young girl approaches a young boy, both not yet in adolescence. Puppy love.
A Bojagi is a traditional Korean cloth dating back hundreds of years, used in wrapping everything from bodies to food. Although they can be made with a variety of materials and come in a multitude of colors and textures, they are often made by stitching together leftover scraps of fabric. In this case, Chae reflects on a Bojagi he once used to wrap his gradschool lunch on a school trip. Like hope it emerges, like a dream it fades away.
Chae Tongyull has a career that spans over 4 decades and many more continents. As an immigrant to the US in the 1980s, he offered a uniquely Asian voice to the East Village art scene taking place in New York City. As the product of two cultures, his work is rife with colors, stories, and the experiences of a life well-travelled. Following his breakout moment in New York City, his work has taken him to Canada, Mexico, Europe, and many cities large and small along the Himalayas, where he has been traveling and painting since 2010.
He has participated in various international exhibitions including within the Bronfman Center in Montreal, Saatchi & Saatchi in NYC, And the Beat Goes On in Shanghai and Chengdu, and are part of permanent collections within the Korean National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Samsung Lium Art Museum, Daelim Art Museum, and Daejeon Expo.