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THE THIRD CHAPTER : INTERVIEW WITH Kavieng Cheng (ENGLISH VER.)

Every artist carries something at the heart of their practice—an idea, a question, or a way of seeing that continues to shape the work as it evolves. In this conversation, Kavieng Cheng reflects on a practice shaped by intimacy, emotional restraint, and the ways experiences continue to influence our relationships with others. Through sculptural installations such as Unburned , made from one thousand hand-formed porcelain cigarette butts, and PufferFish , which explores the tension between closeness and self-protection, Cheng considers how emotions that are difficult to articulate can take physical form. The work invites us to look beyond what is immediately visible and consider what remains when something appears to have ended. In this chapter of The Core Message , we explore the questions that continue to guide Cheng’s practice, from whether emotions ever truly disappear to how art can make space for uncertainty, memory, and unresolved experiences. Reflecting on the development of the...

Interview with Ur Kasin (English ver.)





Q. Welcome to U1 Gallery. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to interview you. Thank you very much for your time. Could you please introduce yourself and your work? What inspired you to begin creating art?

A. My name is Ur Kasin. I was born in 98' in Bucharest, Romania. It's the same city I grew up in and the same city I live and work. I don't remember how I began creating art, it was a long time ago. Probably drawing on desks at school.

Actually, I painted the cat once and it was definitely before school, but she was NOT happy.




Q. Could you describe an artwork or series from your oeuvre that you consider pivotal in your career?

A. The Graphite Period. It's called that because all I knew then was to draw with graphite on paper. I was 19 and although I'd already made hundreds of works, none was for myself. I was totally drained so one day I just said f it and went my way.


Q. Could you elaborate on your creative process and the methods you use to express your work?

A. The process of creating in my case is always changing, But as a rule of thumb, I always go from small to big. The painting begins once the color palette is chosen, the color palette gets chosen once the contrasts are right, and this only happens after multiple charcoal drawings, but each charcoal drawing requires multiple sketches and so on.

The funny thing is that although a painting should be the final form of long thought, I sometimes feel like the sketches or the charcoal drawings express way more than the painting for witch the drawings were made.




Q. Are there any artists or specific works that have had a significant influence on you?

A. YES! And they are a lot! And not just visual artists. Anegrete Solteau, Corneliu Baba, Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Mser (it's a dude who does graffiti in Bucharest), Cy Twombly, Oscar Niemeyer, etc.

I've made a special 'Thanks' page for most of them somewhere on the website. I say most because there's definitely more than one that I've missed.


Q. Where do you draw inspiration for your work?

A. Sometimes, inspiration feels like an infinite staircase, you need to have where to step to go a little higher. So I kinda take everything that I know and make a soup out of it. Maybe I'll take a part of a magazine, with a corner of my friend's kitchen, with a hand of a sculpture I saw a few years ago and POOF that's the inspiration for a painting. The next time I'll add a little more, and then a little more on top of that, and before realizing it, I was mixing hundreds of thoughts on the same canvas. Inspiration is closely tied to practice btw.




Q. What do you hope the audience takes away from your art?

A. I hope there's gonna be someone out there that sees my art and feels inspired by it, in any way, shape, or form. I would love to hear that they like it, but even 'c'mon man I could do that, I should start drawing' is good enough for me.


Q. What is your dream project? Could you share your future plans and aspirations as an artist?

A. Now that you ask, I never really thought about it. I'm working on a lot of stuff right now and it would be awesome one day to combine everything in a BIG exhibition, but I try to take things step by step and enjoy the process as much as I can. Time flies, you know?





Contact
Artist : 
Ur Kasin
Instagram : @ur_kasin

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