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Author Archives: Beccy Kennedy

Seoul seeking…

Korea, Manchester and the International Art Triennial

26-Apr-08

ATM08 logoBeccy Kennedy reports

Britain’s first Triennial of Asian Art launched earlier this month, when a gaggle of global art goers gathered in the grandiose foyer and atrium of Manchester Art Gallery to preview the outstanding art installations from Korea. Of the five Asian countries selected by galleries in Manchester: China, India, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, the largest gallery chose striking art works by Korean artists, Gwon Osang and Choe U-ram.

Yamaha - Osang GwonUpon entering the foyer of Manchester Art Gallery, Gwon Osang’s shiny photo montaged life sized figures greet the visitor wearing their casual clothes and animated poses, as they stand, on their plinths on either side of the staircase. Gwon visited Manchester last year and was inspired by a performance by Mancunian musician, Graham Massey, so decided to model a Styrofoam sculpture on him, YAMAHA (left), commissioned by Manchester Art Gallery. Gwon, who is interested in how body language and hand gestures alternate between cultures, worked one to one with Massey to produce a ‘glocal’ cultural creation, uniting Mancunian cultural chic with the typically careful craftsmanship of a contemporary Korean artist. YAMAHA stands opposite Control (bottom), a young Korean male, complimenting and contrasting Massey, clad in similarly casual gear but with a puzzlingly different pose. Gwon covers his figures with hundreds of snap shots of the model which include every separate part of the figure’s body, fused together on the surface of the sculpture to form a holistic yet slightly disjointed visual assimilation. Does this signify the complexity of our human biological mechanisms and the similarity of our genetic makeup across nations? Or, perhaps it represents the fractured and hyper-realistic nature of our identity formations in an increasingly media orientated globe.

Choe U-ramSimilarly surreal in outlook, are two mechanized metallic organisms from Choe U-ram’s extraordinary animal empire (right). Urbanus Male and Urbanus Female (below) co-habit the upper echelon of the gallery’s atrium. Suspended from the roof, like dinosaur skeletons, the two fictional creatures move interactively at regular intervals, catching the viewer unaware. Visitors have reportedly fallen in love with the robotic romance of these silver skinned structures, whose particular habitation requirements and personalities are described in the accompanying labeling. Not dissimilar in theme and style to Lee Hyungkoo’s faux-scientific sculptures, Choe creates creatures from naturalistic looking shapes, whose intangible familiarity is juxtaposed with the familiar intangibility of museum and mass media reduced science. Lee and Choe share this thoughtful mix of contemporary cultural commentation and stunning workmanship. Lee’s sculptures were the focus of the Venice Biennial 2007, and here, Choe’s works were the feature within the space for the opening speeches of Asia Triennial Manchester.

Choe U-ram: Urbanus Female (photo: Caroline Bradley)

Choe U-ram: Urbanus Female (photo: Caroline Bradley)

Control - Osang GwonThe Tri/biennial phenomenon has been shaping and been shaped by the international contemporary art scene, increasingly, over the past twenty years. Art critics are sceptical of the ‘pick a country’ approach to representing global art, or curatorial themes which aim to characterize a particular continent or nation’s cultural attributes. Asia Triennial Manchester 08, organised by the Asian arts agency Shisha, aimed to keep the artistic themes open, around the issue of ‘protest’ reflecting how individual artists use dissent in their work. Perhaps, this protest is also manifested within Shisha’s own autonomic approach to the triennial, as they have decentralised the omnipotent chief curator’s voice and gaze, and offered the microphone and magnifying glass to a range of curators, artists and members of the public, through a number of educational events and symposia. Issues such as the global/local have been explored at Castlefield Gallery’s ATM08 symposia series, whilst questions of the commercialisation and labelling of ‘Asian Art’ were raised at the Shisha / Manchester Metropolitan University conference on 4th April, ‘Protest: Reflections and Revolutions,’ by academics such as S. Sayid and Hou Hanru.

Asia Triennial Manchester has traversed the difficulties raised by the prescriptive visual documentation of ‘Asian Art,’ partly through its own self categorisation as an ‘Asia Triennial’, rather than a Triennial of ‘the Asian.’ The latter term, could instigate crude and undignified issues of ‘compare and contrast’ between Asian countries and ultimately suggest an outdated notion of nation or continent. Gwon Osang’s and Choe U-ram’s installations suggest they work as global artists, using global materials and inter-cultural or supernatural subject matter. Their themes, styles and techniques descend the neat narratives of national difference and highlight the plethora of issues encountered and aroused by artists from Korea.

Control - Osang Gwon (detail)

Gwon Osang will also present a solo exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery from 21 June – 21 September 2008.

Urbanus Male and Urbanus Female will exhibited in the gallery’s atrium space from 5 April to 21 September 2008.

Beccy Kennedy is a course leader for the Asia Triennial Manchester related course, ‘An Introduction to Contemporary Asian Art’ at Cornerhouse, Manchester. On 18 June, Beccy will lecture on issues of Colonial Modernity and post-modernity in 20thC art from Korea, and on 25 June, she will explore the contemporary implications of Socialist Realist poster art in DPRK (North Korea).

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Art for the People, Art by the People

07-Mar-08

Beccy Kennedy muses on an unnoticed exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre:
Korean Folk Painting on White Porcelain : Kim So Sun
(30 January – 28 March 2008)

There is another exhibition on at the new Korean Cultural Centre at the moment and it doesn’t involve vociferous video installations by trans-cultural 20th century big wigs. In fact, there are several potential exhibitions contained within the same space that generates Good morning Mr Nam June Paik. The other titled exhibition to which I am actually referring resides in the basement area, above the PC library, as if a part of Jeong Hwa Choi’s eclectic interior design scheme, rather than a discernible display in itself. It is a contemporary show of what is often referred to as Minhwa - ‘People Ar’ or ‘Folk Art’, by Kim So Sun.

Blue Tiger. Kim So Sun. 33 x 45 cmBlue Tiger. Kim So Sun 33 x 45 cmRed Tiger. Kim So Sun. 33 x 45 cmRed Tiger. Kim So Sun 33 x 45 cm

This is the first time in Britain I have seen contemporary Korean folk painting, as opposed to older examples, often from the late Chosun Dynasty, provided in the British Museum, the V & A, the Korean Embassy or as decoration for Korean restaurants. Minhwa does not just provide a site for exploring ‘traditional’ Korean culture in the form of: Shamanistic healing rituals, the community worship of natural spirits and the multi-sacred mix of auspicious Confucian, Buddhist and Shamanist iconography, depicted in visually stunning earth found primary colours. Minhwa demonstrates the diverse and fulfilling spirit of culture in contemporary Korea. Wander round the streets by Inwangsan Mountain in central Seoul, and you can hear the drumming and chanting of shamanist gatherings interlacing with the hum-drum hum of traffic. Take a walk a little way up the mountain and in amongst the concrete areas of exercise equipment or army barracks, you may discover puzzling rock carvings and tiny towers of pebbles and flower offerings.

According to Sarfati [1], Shamanism is more alive and omnipresent than publicly perceived. Folk art has a utilitarian purpose for these ceremonies, assisting the conjuring or visualisation of earth spirits and offering a vivid consecrated atmosphere. Taken out of its traditional Korea context, the art still speaks for itself, giving a vibrant voice to the natural environment: celebrating the moon which sometimes shines orange, the tiger who seems to smile, and the rocky mountains whose crannies appear blue. Forget the over-told art historical narratives of European Impressionism and Expressionism whose inspiration came from their research into ‘Oriental’ art, as they sought to manipulate what they viewed as ‘primitive’ and expressive, recoining it as ‘Modernist’. Rousseau’s Tiger in a Tropical Storm can stay in it; bring on Kim So Sun’s friendly Big Tiger painting on porcelain (below).

Big Tiger: Kim So Sun, Painting on White Porcelain, 77 x 231 cm

Minhwa art and all nations’ ‘folk’ art is available to everyone, due to the inexpensive natural palette and materials, and community augmentation. In fact, in Korea, folk art was appreciated and used auspiciously by even the upper classes during the Chosun Dynasty, as well as providing an important place in the small households of the lower classes. Conversely, Modernist and Contemporary art tends to be a less wholesome affair, through its association with the academy or the market place. Its purpose is conditioned by expectation and fashion. However public centred it may claim to be, the gallery or museum always dictates. It appreciates its audience but it also crafts its audience appreciation, it captures the artists’ artistic concerns but the artists’ artistic concerns are also captured by it. Yet, resident curator at the Korean Cultural Centre, Kim Seungmin (Stephanie), is keen to show the audience the inherent value of folk art [2]. Kim So Sun’s paintings on porcelain are classic, charismatic examples of Minhwa subject matter. Perhaps next time, the artists will be unknown and without any prestige.

Displaying art for the people is ultimately about displaying art by the people. Lee Jiyoon’s Good Morning Mr Nam June Paik does not just provide examples from the expected renowned 20th century contemporary Korean artists, such as Paik himself, Kim Atta or Kim Jonghak, of which the audience would expect to mark the opening of a new major cultural centre. The exhibition also dares to show engaging art works by less known 21st century artists who are still studying art or have not yet had chance to exhibit widely internationally, such as Kang Seunghee, Kang Eemyun and Chun Woojung. These artists are due an exhibition in themselves. Kang Seunghee and Chun integrate aspects of popular culture into their art; Chun using textual excerpts from what appears to be romantic fiction and Kang encapsulating everyday scenes of cartoon styled people hanging about global city scapes in jeans and sports wear. This art depicts 21st century culture and these artists are aware of their place within it.

The Korean Cultural Centre is a ‘centre’ for members of the public to drop in, facilitate, engage with, and to ultimately form a part. Let us hope that the exhibiting space continues to reflect and redress the multi-layered aspects of contemporary Korean culture.

Flowers and Birds. Kim So Sun. Painting on White Porcelain, 26.5 x 80 cmFlowers and Birds. Kim So Sun. Painting on White Porcelain, 26.5 x 80 cmFlowers and Birds. Kim So Sun. Painting on White Porcelain, 26.5 x 80 cmFlowers and Birds. Kim So Sun. Painting on White Porcelain, 26.5 x 80 cm

  1. Sarfati, L. (Indiana University) spoke about her research into the prevalence of folk religion (Musok) and its inauguration into contemporary media, ‘Internet As a Medium for Promoting Musok in Contemporary South Korea,’ KPSA World Congress for Korean Studies 2007: Korea in the World: Democracy, Peace, Prospoerity and Culture, 24 August 2007, BEXCO, Busan.[back]
  2. In conversation with Stephanie Kim at KCC, 27 February 2008.[back]
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Korean Links in Manchester

06-Feb-08

ATM08 logoBeccy Kennedy, PhD candidate in contemporary Asian art at MIRIAD, and LKL’s visual arts correspondent, writes to remind us that London is not the only place in the UK to get your fix of Korean culture.

If you don’t already live here and have ever felt like paying a visit to Britain’s birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and Indie/Rave music scene, then this springtime may prove to be an exceptionally fruitful opportunity. There are two major Korean cultural events taking place, which alongside the popular Koreana Restaurant [1], and Seoul Kimchi foodstore [2], should be enough to entice you to take a long weekend away in Manchester.

This little mock tourism advert is coming from someone who used to live in London and still yearns for life in the multifaceted, multicultural metropolis. Yet part of this yearning is based on the multitude of Korean cultural events which continually take place in the capital, as LKL pays testimony. Now there’s a reason to be in Manchester. Britain’s Asian art triennial, ATM08 [3], will launch artworks from Korea, China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore and Taiwan in five of the city’s top galleries on April 4th. ATM08, organised by Shisha and MIRIAD (Manchester Institute for Innovation in Art and Design), will be a ground breaking arts event, providing a platform for new intercultural networking opportunities and site specific creations. Manchester Art Gallery will showcase stunning 3D works by two internationally recognised Korean artists, Choe U-Ram and Gwon Osang (who you may remember from Give me Shelter at Union Gallery), until September 21st. There will be a series of public events at Manchester Art Gallery based around these contemporary Korean art works. And a special date for your diary: on 5th April the ATM08 symposium will take place at Whitworth Art Gallery, where you’ll get the chance to hear all the artists talk about their work.

Manchester’s modish cinema/gallery/restaurant, Cornerhouse, has just opened an exhibition of the London based Korean artist, Chosil Kil. Kil’s exhibition, divided into ‘Living with Andis’ and ‘Cocoon’ inventively presents the artist’s personal feelings of memory and modification as she experiences the different cultures of (Korea), Denmark, Canada and Britain. She uses embroidery and recycled objects to produce unique havens signifying episodes of her private life, offering them up to the public space, like communal confessions. I came away from the exhibition feeling trusted and privileged to be let in on her secret story. You can experience this exhibition until March 23rd, so you may want to make your stay into a full length holiday or research into some ‘mega’ cheap coach and train tickets. Beginning in May there will also be an introductory eight week course of Contemporary Asian Art at Cornerhouse, which should introduce themes and debates in contemporary art from Korea, alongside other countries exhibiting at the Triennial.

For more information about the ATM08 related arts events, contact the galleries involved, listed on the Asia Triennial Manchester website.

Finally, being an Arsenal supporter I don’t want to harp on about this last Manchester-based attraction too much, but if you happen to know a Manchester United season ticket holder and fancy a break from the high arts, you may grab a chance to see Park Ji-sung play at Old Trafford too!

  1. 40a King St West, Manchester, M3 2WY, 0161 832 4330[back]
  2. 275 Upper Brook Street , Manchester, M13 0HR, 0161 273 5556[back]
  3. See http://www.asiatriennialmanchester.com/ or email beccykennedy [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk for more detailed information[back]
Filed in Events news, Food & Drink, Koreatowns, Manchester, Other exhibitions | Comments (2) »

From East to East: Time Space Extension

04-Dec-07

Victoria Hall: After Reynolds C-type print, 90×120cm, 2003Arcadia
A group exhibition with Korean and British artists: Dae Hun Kwon, Victoria Hall and Jin Kim
22 Novemeber 2007 - 12 January 2008
I-MYU Projects, 23 Charlotte Road, London EC2A 3PB

Review by Beccy Kennedy

Globalisation theory uses the term “time-space compression” [1] to elucidate the concept of a new world without distinct nations, where borders are malleable and hours are reconfigured into seconds through the single tap of a plastic key, where won transmogrify to dollars through the single swipe of a plastic card. Each single transaction is at once plural. Each plurality is a reoccurrence of regime but not of a moment. The art works at Arcadia exhibition both confirm and reject ‘time-space compression,’ creating new moments of cultural insight that transcend nations, empires and histories.

The curators at I-MYU, JeongAe Im and Eunbok Yu, address the historicism of the Greek term ‘Arcadia,’ as it has been used to refer to ‘landscapes,’ examining it through differing ages of perception and expectation. Here, they aim to translate the term via the works of three international artists from East [2] and West, positioned within the context of a contemporary East London arts space. The juxtaposition of two artists from Korea, Jin Kim and Dae Hun Kwon, with a British artist, Victoria Hall, is wise, as it realigns the theme of translation across nations whilst reasserting the boundlessness of globalisation. Kim and Hall reclassify classical scenes and echo each other’s ostensible fascination with traditional British décor or decorum; Hall (above right) posing as protagonist in her photographs of reformulated regal-esque oil paintings by masters such as Gainsborough and Orchardson, and Kim expressionistically painting urbane living rooms or old-fashioned garden sheds, taken from photographs of English country interiors. Via their transcriptions of the original images, from painting to photograph or photograph to painting, Hall and Kim attach their own ideological imprints, suggesting how the scenes could be both created and seen, through another author’s eyes, from another era, class or nation, in another’s moments. This ‘other’ is the artist and the viewer, as we collectively stand distanced from the Greek classicist, the Georgian painter, the Victorian interior designer, and draw new horizons unto our past and future historical landscapes.

Dae Hun Kwon: Forest (view 1) - Hanji paper Dae Hun Kwon: Forest (view 2) - Hanji paperDae Hun Kwon: Forest (view 3) - hanji paper

The process of redefining ways of seeing is the main focus of Dae Hun Kwon’s paper and mixed media sculptures. In fact Kwon’s sculptural works appear at odds with Kim and Hall’s pictorial pieces until this is realised. Kwon’s illuminating landscape, ‘The Forest’ (above - click to enlarge), uses tiny pieces of paper, raised off the canvas, which cast shadows with the help of an automated, transitional light mechanisim, creating a 3D, fleeting, shimmering pattern. ‘The Forest’ of paper pieces resembles a backcloth of trees, where the trees are just a term, as the branches and the spaces between them realise new forms depending on when and how you look. There are no clear signifiers or signifieds [3], and Kwon appears to promote this aspect. Beside the image is a book of his own forest photographs, with identified shapes highlighted in different colours, where he has seen faces, which have later become crumpled masks in his other installations.

Jin Kim: Untitled, 2007, 200cm x 200cm, oil on canvas

There is a figurative presence in all three artists’ works. In Hall’s reconstructions, the figures are clearly of herself and her child, in Kwon’s coppice, the viewer is left to identify their own versions of sentience and in Kim’s interiors there is either a noticeable absence of presence, or sometimes his portrait indicates a presence of absence. In his untitled scene of what appears to be a garden shed (above), you see his portrait but you have to look hard, as he melts into the coloured strokes of the setting, his body dismantled into the location, his aura becoming the decor. Whilst Hall makes a conscious statement about the changing role of portraiture and women’s place within it as it transcends to 21C time, place and medium, Kim and Kwon, perhaps, articulate more latently, the role of the migrant as this transcends through inter-nations to supposed trans-nations, Empires to ‘globe’.

Time-space compression may be the easing of actual global movement but almost expects the easiness of its ideological upshot. Yet, through recent conversation with Kwon and Kim, it seems that living in the UK can sometimes feel alienating, Korea distanced in both time and space. It can get dark as early as four o’clock in London in winter and still people leave their soiled shoes on when they enter the comfort of their own home. The keyboards on their laptops use English letters, for this is the global digital language, yet at home in Korea, hangul letters are present too. The histories of nations, of roles from the ‘ancients’ of civilisation to the currents of digitalisation, are omnipresent, like inside the trunk of a tree, compressed but extending far beyond the freshest bark. We shouldn’t just scratch on the layer of what is immediately visible, but try to unpeel the other layers, not just of one tree, but of the whole budding forest.

Links:

  1. Harvey, David (1990) The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.[back]
  2. Whilst it can now be considered outdated to use the terms ‘East’ and ‘West, ‘ because of their rich Orientalist, Colonialist connotations, I have used them here within the context of the exhibition’s focus on changing historicisms and against the backdrop of I-MYU’s location in what is still known as ‘East’ London. In other writings, I would favour the fresher terms of ‘North’ and ‘South’.[back]
  3. Saussure, Ferdinand de. (2006) Writings in General Linguistics, Translated by Carol Sanders, Matthew Pires, Oxford: Oxford University Press.[back]
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Jung at Heart

17-Sep-07

Eo-Ulim: In Harmony

Review by Beccy Kennedy

Sang-yoon Yoon: Friend to all is a friend to none, oil on canvas, 200 x 175cmOn first sight, you wouldn’t realise that any of the three distinctive painting styles had been selected to represent a fusion of Korean and British artistic styles and experiences. The title, Eo-ulim, the Korean term meaning in harmony, particularly used in relation to inter-cultural adaptability ignites interpretations of hybridised, transcultural identities within these images. Additional investigation into the artists’ backgrounds and influences further adds to the significance of this harmony. The exhibition works on a logical level due to this curatorial input, although the vivid tones and Surrealist vistas of the paintings make for an aesthetically enjoyable visit to the ArtsDepot, Finchley, regardless of whether the viewer is interested in Korean painting or painting generally.

Chul-won Kwak: Archaic Union, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 100 cmBeginning from the left of the gallery, Sangyoon Yoon’s contemporary scenes of everyday social experience, tell familiar stories of urban leisure seeking amongst the youthful. Clad in hoodies or ethnic cardigans, with sloped backs and beer glasses, gathered aimlessly together (and sometimes apart), around what looks like student campuses, these figures could be pleasure seeking in contemporary Seoul, London or elsewhere. Yoon’s nation-less characters seem without harmony, but with a familiarity, which is in harmony with the way (post-) modern lifestyles can leave us all feeling. As a contrast to these starkly realistic scenes, Chulwon Kwak’s silkily painted mountainous panoramas visit the shadowy depths of his unconsciousness, though this visitation is conscious itself. In conversation with Kwak at the private view, he described his attunement with Jungian psychology, in particular Jung’s analysis of shadows. Kwak talked of how studying art in the UK introduced him to the theories of Western philosophers. Similarly, Jungmi Bae’s works, which complete this contemplative circuit of canvasses, were strongly influenced by Lacanian philosophy. Bae describes her work as ‘feminist’ [1], and like Kwak’s use of shadows, Bae employs similar metaphors, but of flowers and mirrors, to explore the female psyche. Both artists seem to be searching internally, even embryonically, for a harmonisation with nature; that being human nature and the natural world of flowers and rural landscapes.

Jung-mi Bae: Another II, oil on canvas, 92 x 122 cmKwak and Bae’s technical painterly mastery was learnt through their Korean art education; Kwak describes his landscape painting as ‘Korean style’ [2]. Whilst his smooth topped mountains look like scenes from rural Korea, they could as easily be from the Peak District, and this ambiguity is perhaps what is most appealing. Bae paints Irises, a flower that grows wildly in Korea, but she also uses Delphiniums (anyone think of Winnie the Pooh?). Bae described to me how living and working in the UK, makes her ‘feel more open’ [3]. It would be interesting to compare these paintings to her previous works from Korea. Her use of mirrors certainly adds extra visual and thematic dimensions to her floral encapsulations, so her study of Lacan seems to have answered questions for which she had previously been searching just to ask.

Eo-Ulim succeeds in what it set out to do: explore the assimilated harmonious and complex experiences of artists from Korea working in Britain. However, this achievement becomes apparent on closer observation, not of the paintings themselves, but of the artists’ histories and mind mapping movements. As an exhibition working around the theme of harmony, it works best when you consider the visual interweaving tapestry of this artistic trio and how the three distinct painting styles somehow merge to form a complete and seamless painterly experience for the viewer. Yoon represents the real, Kwak the subconscious real and Bae, the surreal, though these states begin to inter-tangle into each other the more you gaze, and consider your own experience within the gallery space.

Eo-Ulim / In Harmony, an exhibition of young Korean artists working in London, is showing in the Arts Depot, 5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, North Finchley, N12 0GA, from 13 to 19 September.

  1. In conversation with Jungmi Bae, Eo-Ulim private view, 14 September, 2007[back]
  2. In conversation with Chulwon Kwak, Eo-Ulim private view, 14 September, 2007[back]
  3. In conversation with Jungmi Bae, Eo-Ulim private view, 14 September, 2007[back]
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Catering for the Audience

28-Mar-07

Sora Kim — Melting Alaska, BALTIC, Gateshead
14 February - 29 April 2007

Review by Beccy Kennedy

Melting Alaska 1

Whilst munching on spicy chorizo stotties — a dish given the name Smoky Mountain — we browsed the inimitable menus, commented on the amorous musical medley and read the bright red words stuck to the windows, trying to decipher which phrases answered which questions. These questions, focusing on romantic memory, were devised by Korean artist Sora Kim, and posed to local Newcastle residents. The findings were then assimilated into a multi-sensory café installation incorporating: a range of correspondingly conceived recipes, a selection of new but mismatched furniture and a small TV screen demonstrating how to cook (the contents of the menu?). It looked vaguely atypical for a white-cube gallery’s café décor, but I hadn’t known what the BALTIC refectory looked like before the installation, and nothing, but the strategically high-positioned TV, appeared out of sync for a public eating-place. The exhibition interlaces itself mischievously and intangibly into the eatery. Perhaps, this is why Kim’s exhibit was the most populated in the gallery that day. Everyone likes to dine, with or without design.

Kim’s artwork works in terms of its kinaesthetic rather than its aesthetic impact. Admittedly, Melting Alaska’s concept doesn’t aim to provide fine arts appreciative value but the installation’s visual aspect generally fails to fuel the appetite. There is no delicious ocular stimulus to tease the taste buds and optimise the consumer’s interactive art experience, in this sense. The tabletops are plain, pine appearance, the walls are bare — except for the arial font styled stuck-on words, which overlap, making them difficult to read — and the table menus are monochromatic and text-dense. However, the fluorescent pink pick-up Collector’s Edition Recipe Booklet (suggested donation £1) explains Kim’s project in a user-friendly format and lists the questions that were asked to the local people. This helps the viewer to assemble the seemingly incongruent parts of the installation, and reinforces the artwork’s capability for widening participation.

Melting Alaska 2Whilst Kim ‘engages with local communities,’ [1] including the chefs who ‘interpret’ the dishes, during the execution of the artwork, she also encourages the art’s realisation to take place in a non-threatening environment. It’s possible that members of the public may visit the café without any intention of going to the galleries, then incidentally experience a work of art, which ultimately challenges their expectations of contemporary art and the gallery space. Kim’s piece is involved and egoless in this way. She enables the chefs to transpose and compose recipes, from the thoughts and experiences of the interviewees, and even the dishes’ names consist of these quotations. Kim had a concept and the public participants actualised it. The difficulty lies in how widely the rest of the public residents will actually receive it. The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts sits in a touristy spot, by the millennium bridge at Gateshead Quays but it stands apart from the city’s shopping and business area, and is separated by the Tyne itself. Aside from the sea air, there’s a whiff of the Victorian Art Museum-opolis, in terms of the BALTIC’s uneasy location. However, this isn’t Kim’s doing, and in choosing Newcastle, she has avoided the capital-city-centrism of the international arts arena in Britain.

What I found engaging about the artwork was not the description of its conceptualisation, the assortment of questionnaire answers in the form of word transfers floating across the four walls, or the curiously combined flavour of chorizo and rocket in my stottie. It was the way the theme of the exhibition subtly manoeuvred itself into the conversation between my friends and myself as we sat in the cafe, like eggs sealing round mushrooms in a pan. By choosing a concept, which everyone has experienced in some shape or form, Kim has widened conceptual participation, at the very least for the engagement of the available audience at the BALTIC. I found myself asking a friend of ten years, “Where is the most romantic place you’ve ever been?” She replied, “Liverpool.” In Melting Alaska, Kim’s aptitude is, perhaps, in her capacity for creating an environment, which encourages the unfolding of the unexpected.

  1. Sora Kim, Melting Alaska, Collector’s Edition Recipe Booklet, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.[back]
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Song from the roof-top

03-Feb-07

Bada Song’s Installation Piece at “So-Called Life” exhibition,
Camberwell College of Arts, 11 January - 9 February 2007.

Review by Beccy Kennedy

The photographs and installation art works displayed in the foyer of the Camberwell College of Arts for “So-called Life” are challenging of our expectations of the exhibition space and also perhaps of our assumptions of multi-media installation works. There are no audio-visual pieces, but bronze and cast paper sculpture and b/w photographs, arranged with a kind of strategic chaos, including a hint of Dada (in Paul O’Kane’s photographs) and Surrealism (in Rob Prewett’s bronzes), the latter two are almost engaging a re-Modernist, celebratory approach to composition. Most salient and unusual of the works are Korean born, Camberwell trained sculptor, Bada Song’s Roof, entitled, “Chi-Bung” (”roof” in Korean).

Bada Song: Chi-bung

The traditional Korean-styled Hanok roof, suspended and deprived of the four walls of a home, is composed of cast paper tiles. On closer observation, one notices they are cemented together with walking sticks and thousands of Royal Mail red rubber bands. Song juxtaposes diligent craftsmanship with the readymade whilst fusing archetypical iconography of East and West, communicating the idiosyncrasies of identity translation between South Korea and South London. [1] Yet Song brings our attention to more than these already complex questions of trans-national relationships; she exposes the fragility of nature, of social and material predisposition, actualization and realisation, and in doing this, answers her own questions. “Chi-Bung” reminds me of the classic physiological diagram, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs [2]. Shelter lies at the bottom of the triangle, somewhere between “Physiological” and “safety” needs, and without these, “Belonging” and “Self-actualization” cannot be achieved [3]. The issue is that some needs and some desires are supra-cultural. When describing “Chi Bung”, Song talked more of age than of culture. Here, the embedded walking sticks might represent the wisdom of maturity and of experience.

When Song was a little child, living on the island, Jeju-do, she had a vision of a floating roof in a dark sea, after the turbulence of a storm, which had disrupted her home. She is unsure of whether it was real or dreamt but the image still resonates today, in another country and in another time, but with added retrospection. The roof’s possible connotations are exemplified by its anonymity and its detachment from any scaffolding which could represent a home. The space beneath the roof is absent, enabling the observer the freedom to fill it with their dreams, memories and expectations but also, actively, with their physical presence. As Song enthused, “Children can play and people can even eat their lunch under it.” [4] The relaxed and interactive atmosphere at the University Foyer and the concentration of the works of just three artists, encourage the viewer to form a dialogue with the art works and experience the essence of their possible meaning, a feeling which may stand outside of formal language, of any language within this so-called life.

  1. O’Kane, P., taken from Press Release for “So-Called Life”, 11/01/2007.[back]
  2. Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and Personality, 2nd. ed., New York, Harper & Row.[back]
  3. For a diagram, you can trust Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow’s_hierarchy_of_needs.[back]
  4. Interview with Bada Song, 26/01/2007.[back]
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Korean art: Unstoppable forces and immovable objects

17-Dec-06

Still Dynamics: The Korean Contemporary Art Show
The Jerwood Space, 14-20 December

Review by Beccy Kennedy

Yujin Kang: Swimming PoolThe serene setting of the Jerwood Space provides the perfect offset for the vivid works of eleven Korean artists. With the exception of Kira Kim’s light installation, I Love U, and Sangjun Roh’s miniature, cardboard people, the works are surprisingly painterly for a contemporary art show, whilst being diverse in their approach to 2D. Yujin Kang’s dazzling, dexterously painted scenes of swimming pools, including one which lurks, glimmering beneath the hatched yellow lines of a road, reflecting their shadow, (left) particularly stand out. Kang blends precision with fluidity, realism with random imagery, and beautifully captures the theme of the exhibition, staying still whilst moving forward, the contrasting yet harmonious relationship between tranquillity and energy.

Seunghee Kang paints on metal or colourfully embroiders highly busy, dystopian scenes of a misguided modernity. Her caricature styled, figurated vistas evocatively sit somewhere between Spitting Image and Nineteen Eighty-Four. The meticulation is awesome and the impact is big. They provide an alternative to the more abstract paintings, such as Francesca Cho’s intense but enlightening oils and Chulwon Kwak’s peaceful, shadowy acrylics. Sea Hyun Lee: Between RedSea Hyun Lee’s oil on linen literati style, classic mountain-scapes, Between Red, (right) provides the only obvious reference to “the East” through its form and content. Yet the archetypical traditional Korean/Chinese style painting is transmogrified through Lee’s delicate but persistent application of solely red tones, creating an impressive and somewhat unsettling unexpected surrealism. Korea’s traditional pictorial history is immovable whilst cultural experimentation will always be unstoppable; Lee brings the two forces of past and present together [1].

If you’re not a fan of contemporary art, you may be surprised by the degree of figurative painting at this show. Amongst the sensitive and vibrant Expressionist abstractions, romantic landscapes, soulful still-lives and cardboard sculptures, there should be something at Still Dynamics to activate your cultural taste buds and something to leave you standing still in your tracks, contemplating the enduring magnitude of fine art. Be dynamic and get yourself along to it now because the art works will dismantle and disappear to other parts of the world, before you can say “2007″!

Links:

  • Jerwood Space press release. (Jerwood Space is at 171 Union Street, London, SE1 0LN)
  • Beccy Kennedy’s home page
  1. The choice of words in the title to this article - Unstoppable forces and immovable objects - is taken from Iain Bank’s Walking On Glass, first published in 1985[back]
Filed in Francesca Cho, Reviews, Seunghee Kang, Still Dynamics | Comments (0) »

Uncovering Wonderland

05-Dec-06

Through the Looking Glass logo

Artists in the show

Review of the Asia House exhibition by Beccy Kennedy

The multi-storey, multi-story exhibition of contemporary Korean art at Asia House, Through the Looking Glass, provides a multi-faceted Korean art experience, in terms of the media used and the themes approached by the artists. Independent curator, Jiyoon Lee, uses the looking glass as an audience-friendly metaphor to describe the need for investigation between the worlds of Britain and Korea, as they collide within a globalising world. On one side of the glass are Korean art works, from an art world of which the British mind is perhaps unfamiliar; on the other side of the glass is this uninformed British consciousness, carrying with it assumptions and expectations of Korean culture. The two worlds can see each other but are still partitioned by an invisible barrier, which is in need of some breaking, in order for a complete fusion of understanding and meaning to be embraced. This exhibition challenges the currently underdeveloped dialogue between the British and Korean art worlds. As part of Britain’s Think Korea season, “Through the Looking Glass” has uncovered a vital and vitalising channel into the contemporary Korean art scene.

Meekyoung Shin�s Translation-Buddha (2006) A range of art works from South Korea are presented by artists using a mixture of media, from figurative cold war themed oil painting (Jiwoon Kim’s Mendrami, 2004) to real time, motional, water based video projection (Youngjin Kim’s Fluid, 2006) (below right). The depth and variety of art forms and styles is striking, as they interlace their way through the Georgian rooms and corridors of the Asia House space, not forgetting the ladies’ toilets, where Meekyoung Shin’s metallicised soap Translation-Buddha (2006) (left) offers to literally and spiritually cleanse the viewer of their cultural preconceptions.

This is also explored in Shin’s other soap sculptures, such as Translation-Crouching Aphrodite, a Greek styled soap statue of herself (Korean), which raises questions of art historical authenticity and the historicity of the East - West dichotomy or Orientalism. Other artists to approach these issues are Duck-Hyun Cho, in his commissioned Sir Peter Wakefield Collection (2006) and Jeong-Hwa Choi in his plastic suspended sculptures, such as Green, (2006)Jeong-hwa Choi: Green (2006) (left) which is comprised of fluorescent green baskets, with a look of production line aesthetics, joined together to form an elegant, stupa like chandelier. This juxtaposition of contemporary materials with traditionally “oriental” subject matter is also present in Choi’s motor generated Lotus (2006); two waterproof lotus flowers whose “pond” is actually a pre-fabricated concrete rooftop, which can be unexpectedly spotted from a window of one of the first floor exhibition rooms.

Youngjin Kim's Fluid, 2006 Yong-Baek Lee’s In-between (2006) provides a similarly astonishing visual impact. A mirrored box stands at knee level and at first seems to offer nothing but the viewer’s own distorted reflection, until a religiously iconic head transmogrifying from Buddha to Jesus, flies forwards from within the far side of the box then disappears, before reappearing again, in a continual flux of celestial confusion. In-between raises possible questions of religious indigeneity and mutability caused by international movements and globalisation. It challenges Western preconceptions of Eastern countries’ religions and thus traditionalisms, as Christianity has been recorded to be South Korea’s predominant religion [1]. Lee’s work is housed at basement level, alongside the impressive and challenging multi-media installations of Youngjin Kim and Beom Kim. Beom Kim’s montage of hundreds of Korean newsreader clips, assimilates a seemingly coherent monologue of the newsreader on the surface, but quickly it becomes clear that the content of what they are saying is banal. This questions the repetitiveness and absurdity of news based dialogue and how the mass media plays an authoritative role in constructing the audience’s knowledge of the “world”. Next to Kim’s work is Kyuchul Ahn’s Abandoned Doors (2006), a small house, into which you can enter, made from unused wooden doors, discarded during the 60s and 70s in Korea, an era which is sometimes viewed as lost within its transitory quest for industrialisation. Like Sora Kim’s Runaway (2006) poem/music installation, consisting (post-performance) of books, taken from the Asia House collection, stacked face-up on shelves; the scale and interactive aspect of the works welcome the viewer to engage empathetically with the histories in question. It also raises an awareness of the well needed current concerns of integrating environmentalism into art works.

Yeongdoo Jung - Snow White 1Yeongdoo Jung’s photographs and paintings, Wonderland (2004), which occupy the main room on the first floor, offer a charming passage into the childhood psyche. Each colourful drawing of a favourite story or daily experience of the child artists (example left) is elaborately reproduced in the form of a staged photograph by Jung (below right). The attention to detail in the transliterated photographs emphasises the imaginations of the children and provokes a nostalgic glimpse into the viewer’s own forgotten interpretations of life. Jung’s work nicely compliments and assimilates the general “wonderland” theme of the exhibition [2].

Yeongdoo Jung - Snow White 2At Through the Looking Glass, Korean art is not reduced, as it sometimes is, to an overview of its own “Korean identity” or “Korean-ness”; an approach which simplifies and generalises Korean art, confining it to a periphery. The British viewer’s vision of Korea as a country as seen through the “Looking Glass” is as diverse and inconclusive a statement on Korean culture as a British art show, such as The Turner Prize, is to British culture. It is an enlightening, educational and eclectic opening for contemporary Korean art works in Britain, not a crude guide to Korea’s history and traditionalism as traced through their modern art scene. Jiyoon Lee has allowed for open interpretations of the art works by using a wide range of artists and little accompanying written analysis. The visitor is invited to experience and explore the art works comfortably, without needing prior knowledge of art or of Korea. Upon magnification there will be elements visible of Korea’s traditional “wonders” within the exhibition but it is also edifying of contemporary Korean lifestyles. The degree of multi-dimensionality experienced during the journey of Through the Looking Glass, depends on who’s holding the looking glass, how carefully they gaze and at what angle they choose to hold it.

Links:

  • Official exhibition website with images and artist biographies.
  1. ”According to a 1995 social statistics survey, 50.7 percent of Koreans follow a specific religious faith. Buddhists number 10,321,0123 or 45.6 percent of the religious population; Protestants 8,760,336 or 38.7 percent; Catholics 2,950,730 or 13.1 percent; and Confucianists 210,927 or 0.9 percent,” The Korean Embassy, http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/korea/pro-religion.htm[back]
  2. The full set of Jung’s Wonderland images are on his website here[back]
Filed in Cho Duck-hyun, Choi Jeong-hwa, Jung Yeon-doo, Kim Sora, Reviews, Shin Mee-kyung, Through the Looking Glass | Comments (0) »