“What We Cannot Wash Away” by Yeryung Kim

What We Cannot Wash Away explores the tension between our desire for control and the disorder that remains beyond it. At the top of the painting, a pair of hands performs the familiar act of washing, while water falls into a distorted architectural space below. The ordinary gesture becomes strangely powerful when placed above a world of sharp lines, broken forms, and intense colors.

Red structures divide the space into rigid sections, while fragmented windows and tilted perspectives make the environment feel unstable. A small figure stands almost unnoticed within this overwhelming structure, emphasizing the difference between individual scale and the forces surrounding us.

Washing usually represents cleanliness and renewal, yet here it also suggests an attempt to remove something that cannot simply disappear. The painting asks whether order can truly be restored through repeated actions, or whether some traces remain. Ultimately, the work captures the uneasy space between cleansing and consequence, control and uncertainty.