(Google translated)

She borrows images from news photos, but also uses fragments from famous paintings from a few centuries ago. “I really like Dutch painters,” says Chae Eun Rhee. The Korean artist came to Amsterdam in February for a work period of a few months at the Rijksakademie, just before the corona crisis broke out. In between she has been to Korea and now she is back for her exhibition at Eenwerk. “I didn't think at all that all those painters were Dutch, for me all the paintings I liked were just Dutch. It's nice to be here now. I find the symbols and stories behind those paintings very interesting.”

In Chae Eun's chaotic paintings you regularly see pictorial quotes from paintings by Pieter Bruegel, Jan van Eyck or other old masters. One of her last paintings features two figures from The Doubting Thomas by Caravaggio. “That work is about doubt and social media, about protests and fake news. The incredulous Thomas is a kind of key for the viewer to enter the painting. You don't have to be religious to understand its meaning." Chae Eun added a contemporary infidel figure to the scene with Christ. Other elements that often crop up are carrion crows and protagonists from Alfred Hitchcock's film The Birds, rainbows in all shapes and sizes, the fire of Notre Dame, protests in Hong Kong and Black Lives Matter. In apocalyptic images, Chae Eun Rhee holds up a mirror to the viewer of our time, in which all certainties are thrown overboard. The rainbows offer a hint of hope. They can represent the LGBTQ community, but also a positive message in general. “In Japan, rainbow flags are being used to support each other in the current covid situation. Nobody hates a rainbow.” 

In the largest work of the exhibition, we see some figures from Bruegel's The Parable of the Blind. A blind person leads a group of blind people, as a metaphor for today's situation where crazy ideas on social media have far-reaching consequences.” Everyone is exposed to so much information, but not everything is true. This pandemic is also becoming a political tool. There are so many conspiracy theories. Nobody knows what to believe anymore. You have to have your own filter system to develop your opinion.”

To the right of the painting appear two figures in gymnastics uniforms who remove a sail or cover something. A tree has fallen to the left, as a symbol of the old world that will never return. A firefighter tries to put out a fire with water that disintegrates into a rainbow. A road sign with four arrows pointing in different directions.