Moonassi Takes Us Behind the Illustrations

Date 14 February 2019

To correspond with the publication of Directions 2019, we recently spoke to Daehyun Kim, a.k.a. Moonassi, a South Korean visual artist pictured at work in his studio in this silent short film, about the beautiful dreamlike ink drawings he created for "The Science of Sleep". Born in 1980, Moonassi studied traditional Korean painting techniques and East Asian art history at the College of Fine Arts in Seoul. His work has been exhibited internationally and commissioned by The New York Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Maison Kitsuné, and the recording artist Grizzly Bear, among others.

“So I decided to draw my feelings, my thoughts, and the things that I was worried about. I wanted to talk about ‘emotions’ that anyone could feel. It is the beginning of the series of ‘moonassi drawing’ that started in 2008.” In addition to still illustrations like the ones that accompany “The Science of Sleep”, Moonassi is known for his stop-motion animation works, like “Zero Circle”, a Samuel Beckett-inspired 2015 short film imbedded at the end of this post. In a recent email interview, we asked Moonassi to give us insight into his creative process.