This interview was conducted as part of the exhibition project
'Double Interview' which looks into the thoughts and opinions
about contemporary art of 32 artists, curators, and exhibition
planners actively working in Korea (Seoul) and the UK (London).
You can find out more details through the link provided below.

http://east-bridge.net/bbs/zboard.php?id=korean_spots_
exhibitons&page=1&sn1=&divpage=1&sn=off&ss=on&sc=
on&select_arrange=headnum&desc=asc&no=245

Eunice Eunbok Yu : Can you introduce yourself here?
Christopher Le Brun : As an artist I¡¯m a painter, principally
but more recently I¡¯ve been making sculpture, bronze sculptu-
re- sometimes very big and I am also a printmaker and print
has been very important to me. I¡¯ve worked on projects for
years and years.

Eunice Eunbok Yu: I have seen your bronze sculptures.
Somehow I found there is sort of connection between
your painting and sculpture.
Christopher Le Brun : I was always a painter, I couldn¡¯t think
of how to make sculpture, it wasn¡¯t in my mind at all and then
one day I made a little model in wax and a friend  of mine saw
it and he said ¡°That would be interesting in bronze¡± so we 
went to the Foundry and it was in fact a wing, a tiny little
wing about this big, and we turned it into bronze and I took it
home and thought ¡°this is very interesting¡± so I started to
make some of the motifs in my work into objects because one
of the interesting things about painting is that although pain-
ting is of course  flat, you are  depicting things which appear
to have form and sometimes in the imagination it¡¯s interesting
to take these things out and look at them and then its very
fascinating- you take the form of your painting and then you
can walk around it.

Eunice Eunbok Yu : What would be your pursuing as a
painter?
Christopher Le Brun : Well, what I wanted to do as a young
painter, I was very impressed by American painting when I fir-
st saw it. Artists like Mark Rothko and Clifford Still. I was im-
pressed by the scale of it and the colour, its breadth but I
was also aware as a European artist of a tradition of painting
things and people and landscapes and I was looking for a way
to have the energy and the scale of American painting but
also the meaning and the depth of European sensibility to try
and think of how these things could be together so this gives
my painting a particular character I think.

Eunice Eunbok Yu : Have you had a moment to think ab-
out some word for current British art scene?
Christopher Le Brun : it¡¯s changed very much over the last,
say, thirty years. But I think if your thinking about London now
I think it¡¯s very ambitious-the art that¡¯s here and I think ther-
e¡¯s a tremendous amount of energy that goes into it but I also
think its very complicated. It¡¯s exceptionally complicated be-
cause there are many different strands of history running here
and also many different traditions now.

Eunice Eunbok Yu : I can understand. Perhaps, there was
also many European artistic movements in paintings and
even there was a lot of trends nationally as well. It can¡¯t
be just suddenly disappear to nothing.  
Christopher Le Brun : Yes, it¡¯s more like layers because you
have one line, that still maybe continues and the older artists
still continue that line. Then on top of that, you have another
generation, and another generation, and many artists that
come here from abroad so that adds another layer. So it runs
like that, I don¡¯t think the mainstream has moved- it¡¯s just
layered.

Eunice Eunbok Yu : That¡¯s really interesting expression,
Layers, of art.
Christopher Le Brun : Its quite a difficult tradition to under-
stand now, I think it was easier before because there were
fewer artists working but now there are many artists working
and different parts of the art world don¡¯t meet, they run in
parallel but they don¡¯t necessarily meet at all and each one of
these traditions has tremendous depth, particularly the older
parts of the painting and sculpture tradition and in a way
that¡¯s what interests me mostly, some of these lines that have
more depth of tradition and connection but as the younger
artists come in add vitality, energy and controversy which
keeps it very lively.

Eunice Eunbok Yu : Have you had public fund? The supp-
ort from art council is some times very preciously wor-
king for artists in Korea.
Christopher Le Brun : What was very helpful was the British
Council. That was really important, it wasn¡¯t providing money
but it was providing an exhibition. (Maybe travel fund?) Ex-
actly. I remember when my first solo exhibition which was in
Paris and we got some money  from the British Council suppor-
ting that exhibition. I think it¡¯s a wonderful institution because
it¡¯s independent, they make their own decisions.

Eunice Eunbok Yu : Let¡¯s choose another question, what
about ¡®where does your Inspiration come from?¡¯
Christopher Le Brun : You¡¯ve chosen the most difficult! If
you go and look at a painting as a spectator, that¡¯s what you
think. Every painting has a very strange character. It looks as
if it means something, this is the nature of art so you find
yourself asking this question. What¡¯s frustrating is that it¡¯s
very difficult to answer!

Eunice Eunbok Yu : But then, do you think what is the
core thing in painting, if we pose to think as an artist?
Is it like an mysterious urge to make you paint?
Christopher Le Brun : It¡¯s a very odd world. The world of pa-
inting images is a combination of personal meanings, shapes
and forms, and your physique because when you make the
painting you use your physical style like your way of walking
which you can¡¯t control with your mind, you just do it. That is
at the heart of what a painting is. Your physique, what you¡¯re
like as a person, comes out in an image. It¡¯s very strange.

Eunice Eunbok Yu : Still the inspiration sounds quite me-
tal state as well as certain physical movement as you
describe?
Christopher Le Brun : To try another answer to your ques-
tion, I think it¡¯s true that I am interested in writing and poetry
and music so a more simple answer to the question would be
that I think that some of the images from poetry and music
come into the painting. I listen to a lot of music and it is par-
tly due to the state of mind one can come to helps to see pic-
tures.

Eunice Eunbok Yu : Have you really thought about comm-
unication in relation to your work?
Christopher Le Brun : In a way the discussion we are having
is about this question. Here we have a culture in Korea and a
culture in England. This is a fascinating question but not sim-
ple at all because the question it seems to me is there¡¯s a pa-
radox; you can have depth, the depth that you have in your
culture and the depth that I have in my culture and then we
can also have our knowledge and that may be very thin. For
me art works best when you have depth so the tradition in
Korean painting and literature is vast and everything you do
has an echo which has a lot of meaning to you which I will
never understand and similarly the same thing happens and
this is a really interesting thing.