Irip Ahn

Fathom: Quiver
Oil and water-based pigment on linen
178 × 127 cm (70 1/8 × 50 in)
2025

Against a deep green ground, ivory-toned lines descend vertically. They are not straight. They undulate with subtle irregularity, rising slightly at their ends — as though some invisible current has grazed the surface in passing. Viewed up close, each line appears to carry an independent life. They tremble in slightly different directions, at slightly different speeds.

This work is closer to touch than to sight. It attempts to capture the moment when the delicate tissue of a butterfly wing — or the surface of fine hair — responds to the smallest external stimulus. Not the seen, but the felt. Each stroke was laid down with concentration on that haptic moment. The viscosity of the pigment transmitted through the fingertips, and the resistance of the linen surface, remain inscribed in the canvas as they were.

As the viewer's gaze travels across the surface, a moment arrives when the lines seem to actually move — as wind moves through grass, or as fine hairs on skin register a shift in air. Mijin — a tremor barely perceptible. Something that exists yet resists measurement. This work stands at that threshold
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© Irip Ahn
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