Q&A with Krista Kim, DeeKay Kwon, and Grant Yun

As we eagerly await the arrival of The Gateway Korea, we invite you to hitch us on the journey to our flagship occasion going world. The Gateway will function an audio-visual gallery the place artwork, expertise, and group unite. Attendees may even be capable to interact in fireplace chats with visionary creators worldwide, representing each Western and Japanese cultures.

As we’re on the highway to Korea, we’ve interviewed among the greatest Korean creators within the Web3 area who will likely be exhibiting on the occasion, every pioneering their creative journey in distinctive methods.

First, we now have DeeKay Kwon, the prodigious 2D animator from South Korea. With over a decade of expertise in animation, DeeKay ventured into the NFT area 2.5 years in the past, pushing the boundaries of conventional artwork and exploring new horizons throughout the digital realm.

Subsequent, we now have Krista Kim, a Canadian Korean who has spent 13 years dwelling in Seoul and different elements of Asia. Her creative expression delves into meditative portray within the digital age, the place she skillfully merges expertise as a mechanism for wellness, bringing concord and serenity to the ever-evolving digital panorama.

Grant Yun, a Korean American born and raised in Southern California, completes the trio of influential creators. Grant’s work creates extraordinary from the peculiar, creating artwork that displays simplicity and a focus to element.

Collectively, these artists are shaping the way forward for artwork within the Web3 area and embodying the essence of cultural variety and creativity that The Gateway seeks to have fun.

In a conversational Twitter Space, nft now sat down with Krista Kim, Grant Yun, and DeeKay Kwon to dive into their Korean id, what they’ll be showcasing at The Gateway in Korea, and Korea’s influence on world tradition.

nft now: How has your Korean-American heritage influenced your artwork?

Deekay: Properly, I grew up half of my life in Korea and the half in America. So, this background has influenced me lots as an artist. I imagine my fashion of artwork, which you realize, folks discover very cute, aesthetic, and nostalgic, it’s positively influenced by Korean tradition. And the simplicity of design is influenced by America. I went to graphic design college, so I feel that’s an enormous affect there, too.

Grant: So each my dad and mom are Korean, however my dad moved to America when he was mainly like one yr outdated. It’s been fairly cool to, you realize have a dad or mum who’s like identifies as Asian American, Korean American. After which in fact my mother, got here to America shortly after marrying my dad. Korean was really my first language once I was rising up and I lived in Korea for a bit bit as a younger child and would journey fairly a bit. My mother and my aunt who each helped increase me had their Masters in Artwork. Rising up, simply seeing their work on the partitions, which had been principally reflective of Korean traditions was actually inspiring to me.

Krista: My dad is a Supreme Grandmaster of Taekwondo, so he really pioneered Taekwondo in Canada. He was an actual affect on me in studying about Korean tradition. He taught me and my two youthful sisters martial arts. I keep in mind studying find out how to meditate, the ethics codes, the self-discipline all of that was very very formative for us rising up. So for me, my artwork as a meditator, bringing Japanese philosophy and that mix of east and west is really what I’m doing. I’m reinterpreting what I’ve grown up with.

nft now: What is going to you be showcasing at The Gateway Korea?

Deekay: My current one-of-one offered by AOTM known as, ‘Am I Dreaming?’ It’s mainly a self-portrait that visualizes how I spend most of my time. I’m normally, like alone at midnight, you realize, continually desirous about concepts and attempting to deliver them to life. It’s a mix of wrestle, enjoyment, and sleepiness and I normally work lots throughout like very late hours. Lots of the time, I run right into a wall and doubt myself typically, after which like I take a brief nap. I wished to visualise that and animate that by some means. In order that’s how I got here up with the MI dreaming piece.

Krista: The primary piece I’m displaying is ‘Continuum,’ which is a chunk that’s kind of touring all over the world. I created it again in 2017, and it first began beneath a special title, ‘8 by 8.’ I wished to create this huge display screen activation as a public artwork set up for meditativeness and therapeutic. It’s displaying, in fact, in Gateway and Seoul, however I simply did Tianjin, China, at Summer time Davos for the World Financial Discussion board. It is going to be displaying once more in Davos, Switzerland, for the convention in January. So it’s actually gaining momentum and going all over the world as a message for, you realize, bringing folks collectively within the digital realm.

The opposite piece that I’m displaying on a smaller display screen known as ‘Resonance.’ It’s a slowly revolving tough diamond as a result of I see all of us as treasured. And we’re all diamonds. We’re tough diamonds, and diamonds are created beneath strain.

Grant: The piece has the phrase LA in it for Los Angeles, and it’s actually sort of a mirrored image of rising up in California, I grew up within the Bay Space. However you realize, oftentimes, we’d go right down to SoCal, particularly LA. We had buddies and never household, however we now have very shut buddies there, all Korean as effectively. And LA is without doubt one of the greatest hubs for Korean Individuals in the USA. And so once I wished to share a chunk for The Gateway that will be showcased in Korea, I wished to share work near house as a Korean American. There’s a distinctive tradition to Koreans right here in America and people who are looking for a special id other than those that are native to Korea itself. For others, it may simply be a panorama illustration of Los Angeles. And so it’s actually what you are taking from it. However for me, it’s a bit bit extra private.

nft now: Korea is at present experiencing a second of worldwide cultural crossover. Why do you suppose that’s?

DeeKay: I feel Korea all the time has been on the entrance forefront of the expertise traits, it simply feels fairly pure for Koreans to try to adapt to new issues in expertise, as you realize, as people transfer ahead into the long run. Moreover, Korean tradition had a major affect worldwide equivalent to Ok-pop, Korean films, Korean delicacies, trend, and all that.

Krista: The best way I have a look at it now, it’s actually lovely to see how my youngsters are so snug and so blissful making buddies. And yeah, it’s rather more multicultural and rather more world. And I feel that with digital expertise, much more so. So I imagine in additional fluidity, and particularly cultural fluidity due to the expertise that youngsters at the moment are uncovered to.

Grant: I feel this motion of Korean tradition spreading throughout the globe is, I finally do suppose it’s only a results of the nation growing because of Westernized subsidization, you realize, following the Korean Conflict. However I feel Korea has finished a extremely good job at benefiting from all of the alternatives that it’s been given. They’re additionally fairly a superpower in the case of packaging culturally related issues for the remainder of the world to digest, within the type of music and movie.

This interview transcript has been edited for concision and readability.

For the complete and uncut interview, take heed to our Twitter Space.