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Korean art heavyweights create eclectic show
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A high-profile exhibition featuring an all-star line-up of South Korean artists is underway in Hangzhou.
The cast includes the late Nam June Paik, a Korean American artist considered to be the founder of video art, and Lee Ufan, a minimalist painter and sculptor who is based in Japan.
Other big names include Jang Jongwan, Park Jihye, and Atta Kim, who has exhibited his work internationally and was the first photographer chosen to represent South Korea in the São Paulo Biennial.
“This is my first time to hold such a comprehensive and complete exhibition,” says curator Yun Cheagab, who has organized dozens of Korean contemporary exhibitions in China. He also served as chief director of South Korea Pavilion during Venice Biennale 2011.
The exhibition “The Moment, We Awe — Korean Contemporary Art” is co-sponsored by Sanshang Contemporary Art Museum in Hangzhou and Hakgojae Gallery in Shanghai. It features 35 works including installations, paintings, digital works, and videos.
The exhibition is generating considerable buzz in South Korea.
Museum visitors are greeted with an installation named “Relatum — Silence in Seoul” by Lee. It features a large sheet of iron against the wall with a big rock several meters away. At first glance it seems overly simplistic, but the artist wants to “lead people to ponder the originality of nature, and reality of the world.”
Kwon Sunkwan’s two photos have a strong visual impact, and “A Woman — Makeover” is sure to invite some controversy.
One wall-sized photograph depicts a naked woman who has had several cosmetic surgeries and plans on having more. Gauze is wrapped around her forehead, bruises can be seen on her cheeks and chin, while pen marks show other parts of her body she wants to “fix.”
Kwon says he spent two months in plastic surgery hospitals looking for a woman willing to take the photo.
“It is about desire and identity,” he says.
Paik’s five video art installations consist of obsolete television sets playing videos and images. Guests can play with several buttons to distort the images. While younger viewers may find these installations very low tech, keep in mind that Paik made them in the 1960s. It’s little wonder he became “the father of video art.”
Kim’s two photos in his “Museum Project” series depict people nude, huddled up like a fetus, and “preserved” as if they were a museum artifact before a wall of paraffin Buddha figures.
It’s Kim’s first works widely exhibited outside of South Korea. He uses long exposures and image compositing to make individual people and objects dissolve. His work has been heavily influenced by the Zen Buddhist concepts of inter-connectedness and transience.
Lee Seahyun paints traditional Eastern landscape themes of water and mountains, but uses only red painting. Meanwhile, Park’s video uses only one slow zoom-in shot (for almost four minutes) to tell the legend of a South Korean woman.
The Moment, We Awe — Korean Contemporary Art Exhibition
Date: Through September 29 (closed on Tuesdays), 9:50am-5:30pm
Address: Sanshang Contemporary Art Museum, 52-2 Yan’an Rd S.
Tel: (0571) 8782-5633
Admission: Free
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