Kijong Zin’s works offer whimsical interpretation of contemporary social issues through the use of various mediums. In addition, Zin focuses on the use of various mediums and expressions through diverse themes. From his works that offer his perspective of the world, we can acknowledge his overall intention to express themes such as the discrepancy between the way we view the world and the reality and perceptual error that leads to failure of actual judgement.
The «Difficulty of Imitating Nature» (2017) presented on-going long-term project that fully reflects the constant questioning of the artist regarding the boundaries between the truth and false, reality and fiction. For one of his many hobbies, that is fly fishing (fishing using insect-shaped fake bait made out of natural ingredients), the artist creates a phony insect-looking bait that resembles good eye-sighted aquatic insects that do actually live in the mountain streams and are eaten up by fish. This process of reproduction involves exaggerations and omissions to imitate the forms and movements of fooling the fish and focuses on the act of catching the real fish by using them. This is also closely related with the artist’s attitude vis-a-vis art, for he continues to make observations and imitate, based on which the real art work is finally reproduced. As such, it is not simply about an act of fishing as a hobby, but a documentation of the process which becomes endowed with an artistic meaning through the artist. An allegory to the aquatic insects, fish hooks imitated with animal fur and the process of its entire creation recorded in a film, watercolours based on keen observations of aquatic insects and fish, and photos capturing the process and results of fly fishing. The overall process of fly fishing, alluding to art that begins with imitation and reproduction, is fused into an installation where the boundaries between the real and fake are portrayed through the intimate experiences with the natural ecosystem long lived by the artist.