Veiled under brilliances of multi-colour spectrum which is reminiscent of traditional Korean costume, Saekdong, Seong Tae-Jin's skillfully carved wood panel are comic parodies of modern day utopia. Through his embossed surfaces, he recalls on the woodblocks created for mass-produced prints. Seong takes on the visual languages of both traditional craft and contemporary expressionism and carves a splendid image of absurdity on wood, a paradoxical reference as wood as material represent permanence and importance. These recent works are ocular wonderlands and the marks of the carving tool reveal layers of colour beneath, which further enhances the textural quality of the wooden surfaces as well as the effect of shadows and depth in the image. Seong not only continues to challenge himself in technical innovation, but also strives to blur the boundary between painting and wood-carving by emphasising the marks left by the artist's hands on the surface of the wood.
Exploiting the popular character of the Korean heroic robot Taekwon V, as a channel for escapism and role-play, Seong narrates tales and dreams that reveal a combination of patriotism, violence, debauchery, and idleness. This is illustrated vividly in An empty Dream (Lot 1492), where the hero is located in the centre, leaning on the pine tree with a voluptuous lady sitting behind him, as such this resonates the two different traditional genres of Korean painting in the work: Paintings of Longevity and The Daydream of Utopia. Seong cleverly merges the two motifs together to present a new utopia for his hero, perhaps a representation of the many idle youths in Korea. The Love for Seven Years (Lot 1493) from 2011 employs multiple perspectives to illustrate the depth of the scene. In the vibrant configurations of intricate geometrics, and lazing palette of primary colours, past visual elements of Seong's works is still resonated throughout, showing his attempt to use landscape painting to further tell his stories.