Although the digital world has existed for a long time, the importance of living in the digital world has impowered one step further since the pandemic. Portrait of Avatar is a portrait series, capturing the phenomenon that Avatar establishes itself as the first identity of the person, going beyond the representing image, in modern life.

It is common to ask an artist friend for a portrait. An old friend, Jeong Im, asked me for a portrait. Not her face, but her game avatar. Well, why not? Portrait painting is a very traditional artist's role in history. Among gamers, it is no longer new to ask an artist for a portrait of their avatar. They pay different prices to artists based on the quality of their drawings. One difference is that their primary identity today has changed from physical body to avatar.

And still, people want to be recorded. May it be recorded and passed on to the future. Or somebody remember them. The record puts a little mist in front of the eyes of humans facing the primal fear from extinction. It is a small paper boat floating on the cold water of the instantaneous emptiness of existence. The body, which was sometimes called the shell before, becomes more and more cumbersome. The body lost its power, which was like a myth. Now the only thing that remembers its remnants is pain. Pain is not yet conquered, and is holding on to the final glory of the flesh. Sadly, even the seats of the portraits that record them are being taken away by avatars who do not feel pain. Anyway, the day to upload your mind and build a new utopia in the digital world doesn't seem far away. I would love to record them, who ask me to produce their avatar, as a trace of their new beings.