In life – People waiting, 2001
Cheng Seonhooi is drawn to poignant scenes found in mundane landscapes and overlooked facets of our daily lives. He thus records the transformations of Gwangju, however minor or insignificant they may be. Painted in the early 2000s, In life – People waiting and A Forgotten Landscape reveal Cheng’s delicate and tender observations of the city. A Forgotten Landscape, for instance, captures a couple walking along the disused rail track that stretched across the city before it eventually turned into the Green Way Park. Situated inside the Former Armed Forces’ Gwangju Hospital, which could also become yet another example of a forgotten landscape, the painting amplifies its meaning as a record of the now-lost, invisible sights of Gwangju. Similarly, the people waiting for a bus at Chungjang-ro station resonate with us – our gazes, hopes, anxieties – as we also wait for the arrival of ‘something’ that is yet to come.