Nard Chae’s two dimensional paintings have two formalistic characteristics. One is an icon created by the artist herself, and it is referred to as ‘a symbol of Gipbmm.’ Another is the event happening within the icon’s world. Nard Chae’s approach to joy is not just a simple positive emotion nor the drive or happiness that evokes it. Also, it doesn’t connote the achievement of a satisfactory result. The joy of her artwork evokes a sort of joy that is an ‘intensity of an affective encounter.’ 

 Her artwork pertains two keywords, ‘atmosphere and ‘affect.’ She has mentioned that she means to capture a world of harmless and joyful energy, ‘deep (perhaps not externally exposed but hidden in the depth) joy,’ in her canvas. To discuss her attitude and work through Brian Massumi’s affective theory: ‘affect’ involves the body, so even unconscious memories can be brought back to the present. Because memories involve the body from the past or the future, it is ‘present.’ The past is when the present has passed by and the future is the soon to come present. Therefore, it means the act of constantly embracing. 

 The fine resonance of forms that reveal the intense color and tendency of movement that the potential of affect is directed facing the outside of the world displays the power and potential occurred in the event between the open outside life and contemplation of presence where life meets the outside face-to-face. It is open to adventure, and adventure entails hardship. Joy in adventure cannot be gained without acknowledging the hardship creatively taken on. It sends a message that hope brings closer the essence of life and ontologistic essence in an affective point of view. Affect and hope isn’t just a direction between despaired reality and an ideal world, but something that always exists in the present. One can notice that her work evokes resonance from the complexity of relationships and encounters as well as the flexibly continued forms. There is always visual ambiguity around the circumstances in events and the entity itself inherent in the uncertainty is what gives the power. Such ambiguity and uncertainty always coexist in her work, which can be seen as an attempt to move to the next dimension of affect through the process of change and creating. 

It’s impossible to not mention the atmosphere when talking about her work. Gernot Bömhme’s aesthetic debate can be applied when doing so. According to him, emotions derived from the atmosphere is not initially internal, but an external experience from the surrounding objects. The subject and object of the external experiences are not divided and are not an epistemological analysis of mutual subjects, but rather an ecstasy influenced by the atmosphere of the subject. Emotions are understood as a rapture in which humans escape themselves and forget their beings. Bömhme sets the Ecstasy’s subjects as objects. He connects the color and weight with the influence of the perceived subject by escaping oneself and exposition. The perceived subject is observed in an emotionally influenced state. The traits that characterizes and distinguishes the atmosphere is defined according to the emotional influence and the impression of the perceptual subject. Also, the atmosphere is presented by the interaction through the characteristics of the object. This means that the atmosphere is something between the subject and object. In other words, ‘the atmosphere’ is the connection itself. Let’s look at her work mentioning the word ‘Gipbmm’ she created considering these aspects. In the middle, a form of objects vibrated by the intense light which looks like it’s weighed down by a lump of intense color paint creates a moment of experience of trees, waves, and light pouring from the sky. 

 The atmosphere of her artwork takes place in a fixed place. The atmosphere perceived in ingression is the overall impression of the space. It isn’t limited to a particular object but explains atmosphere with the characters of space.  The space mentioned here is space overflowing to unknown places and space imbued with chastity. Like this, space plays such an important role in the atmosphere of Nard Chae’s artwork. People can enter, stay, and be surrounded in the space and especially in that it is an experience of the place itself, that space is a space. In that space, ‘I am present, and I can feel the sounds coming out of my mouth.’ In the artwork, the relationship-phenomenon that occurs between individuals are created through arrangements of objects. The individual objects in a space are comprehended to act as the driving factor of creating the atmosphere and as the influence of each of these increase through competition, suppression and combination, the atmosphere, which is also called an overall impression, is created. However, those affected by the atmosphere are not even aware that the atmosphere is created through the arrangement of objects.

Then, let’s take a look at the individual elements - ‘icon’- in her work. The unconscious ‘resonance’ and ‘implementation’ found in the expression and inside of objects in her two dimensional painting works, and the non-material effects and non-reproducibility that arise from the internal-external relationships can be seen in the following works. "Fruiting_left" (2020) has light like a golden cloth swirling around, and delights and joys are seamlessly blooming everywhere from a fruit tree. These fruits that look like glass balls, are symbols that indicate the ‘joy of harvest.’ Next to the canvas paintings, they are separated into single objects and the two are put side by side. One is the indicator function of the fruit, and the other is the figure function. The latter has a role as a morphological similar to the human heart or glass artifact, fruit. The display strategy of her work also appears in <Mugunghwa> (2020), <Full of light and love_left> (2019), <Wings and stepping up> (2020), and <Together with 3 primary colors of light> (2021). By comparing the two different scenes, clearly differed in size or expression of the screen, we can see that the two have the aforementioned different roles.

The affect in Nard Chae’s work is also very apparent in visageite.’ The most optimal part of her character portrait is the face, especially the facial expression. In that not only the face but all objects have a certain facial expression, affect is the facial expression of all objects or ‘facialization.’ The affect Deleuze mentioned was defined as power-quality, which means the tendency of continuing movement and also staying constant. Facial expression is said to be the expression of qualitative change that occurs when minute movement flowing from the inside and outside of the body stays constantly on face, which is the surface of the body. Affect is the power-quality in which it is expressed on the face. 

Affect is caused by the movement of facial features of the face muscles, but it is not the face itself. It is caused by the objects that hold the sharp edge of a sword, the irritation of a face, the radiant of a smile, the bulk of a body, the ferocity of the waves. However, it cannot be restored by the object nor the subjective perception of the subject feeling it. Affect that cannot be restored by material and the mind, is a virtual transition occurring between objects, subjects and the inherent diversity of each. It is a trace and figure of the implementation. 

Finally, the overall theme of Nard Chae's two dimensional paintings is about the potential power of forming life and proceeding forward with an intense atmosphere. Like unpredictable waves, wind, and climate changes of the ocean, affect is a voyage of body and mind that progresses little by little through the various changes in relationships. The ocean’s deepness cannot be converted into figures but has various surfaces, waves and a variety of creatures that are hidden beneath, a hidden potential. Like the ocean, life is built and moves forward in an uncertain world. Her paintings portray that the hope behind these ambiguity and uncertainty itself is what gives power.