Seen from above, rice fields emerge as abstract structures composed of grids, repetition, division, and interruption.
These forms are not aesthetic coincidences but the result of accumulated agricultural systems, labor, water circulation, and land management. From a vertical perspective, rice fields reveal an order shaped by the intersection of natural processes and human intervention, forming patterns that are at once formal and historical, aesthetic and political.
Rice paddies are among the most familiar landscapes in Korea, naturally accepted as part of the seasonal cycle and primarily understood as sites of cultivation and harvest. This familiarity, however, often prevents closer attention to the structures, systems, and accumulated traces of time embedded within them. Codes Hidden in the Non begins by distancing this everyday landscape from habit and attempting to see it anew.
Through aerial and drone photography, the artist reveals a dimension of the rice paddies that is difficult to perceive from the ground. From a near vertical perspective, the paddies no longer function as conventional landscape subjects. Levees, irrigation channels, tractor marks, and the spacing of seedlings reorganize into rhythms of lines and planes, density and void. While these repetitive structures may recall abstract painting, they emerge directly from lived reality. The patterns etched onto the land are not accidental formations of nature, but the result of sustained human intervention over time. Embankments that regulate water levels, intervals shaped by crop growth, and paths formed through labor efficiency are all inscribed onto the surface of the land. The artist approaches this agricultural terrain as a vast text. Each line and boundary may appear arbitrary, yet they are shaped by intertwined soil conditions, water systems, agricultural technologies, as well as national policies and market logics. Although the rice paddies remain silent, their surfaces retain countless traces of decision making. Codes Hidden in the Non seeks to decipher this visual language emerging from within that silence. Korean rice paddies are particularly distinctive when compared to the expansive and uniform farmlands found elsewhere. Composed of small and irregular plots densely connected to one another, they form a landscape shaped by overlapping individual lives, communal histories, and regional conditions. Within a single frame, multiple temporalities coexist. Fields awaiting planting, paddies already harvested, and plots prepared for the next cycle appear side by side. This layered temporality reveals the rice paddy not as a static scene, but as a site where past, present, and future converge. Today, Korean agriculture is undergoing a period of transition, shifting from a rice centered structure toward a more diversified system of crops. These changes alter the surface and order of the paddies, introducing visible ruptures into what was once a familiar landscape. Viewed from above, abstract forces such as agricultural policy, food security, and economic systems condense into concrete visual form. The land becomes a surface that absorbs social choices and preserves their traces over time
In this work, the drone functions not merely as a technological tool, but as a means of transforming perception. Codes Hidden in the Non ultimately presents the rice paddies not as scenery to be admired, but as structures to be read. They stand as records of labor, judgment, and time, inviting viewers to reconsider the ground they have long believed they already understood.
