SINGAPORE: A Korean artist's latest work, which marries art with medical science, is inspired by a hospital stay.

When artist Chae Kyung was shown x-rays of her spine injury three years ago, she was so amazed by the rough edges around the image and how it resembled a traditional Asian painting that she convinced her friend, a laboratory technician, to let her use the x-ray machine at night.

The result is a new art form that fuses traditionally painted symbols such as a sun or a rooster with newfangled and see-through items.

While Asian art tries to symbolically reveal the essence of what is being portrayed, in the case of x-rays, they literally reveal what is under the surface.

Chae Kyung uses 'hanji', a Korean paper made of mulberry bark, for her artwork.

The production process is time-consuming because she has to adjust the settings of the x-ray machine every time she captures a different material.

For instance, with a typewriter, she would have to take various images of the plastic, metal and other components, and then fuse them on a computer.

Her method is unorthodox, but the outcome is novel, starkly high-tech and delightfully traditional at the same time.

Chae Kyung's works are now on show at Singapore's Utterly Art gallery on South Bridge Road till July 13.


- CNA/so