B.Z. | 2016 Berlin, Germany
The Berlin daily newspaper B.Z. ran an interview feature on Kim Hyun Jung in its culture section on June 16, 2016. On the occasion of her solo exhibition 'Naesoong Stories' (Geschichte der vorgetäuschten Unschuld) at the Korean Cultural Center on Leipziger Platz, the article — introduced also at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art — explains the artist's self-portrait series and the Korean sentiment behind it, naesoong (vorgetäuschte Unschuld, 'feigned innocence'), and features a conversation with the artist about her love of shopping, wearing hanbok, and her views on marriage. Photo: Frank Senftleben, © Kim Hyun Jung all rights reserved.
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Behind the glass of the Korean Cultural Center, Kim Hyun Jung (28) is coquetting with her own innocence. With fine brushstrokes she feels her way across the paper, painting the trees on Leipziger Platz. Seemingly wishing for nothing and at peace with the world.
Hard to believe: within her own four walls in Seoul, Kim Hyun Jung can turn into a shopping monster! "I love shopping. In Korea, online shopping is practically part of the culture," the young Korean tells B.Z.
Kim Hyun Jung (the name means: everything around her is illuminated) combines traditional Asian painting, Western collage, and consumer goods in her self-portraits, up to five meters tall: to-go coffee cups, laptops, and shoes, shoes, shoes. "Everything I paint, I either own or would like to own," says Kim Hyun Jung.
With this mix of art and commerce, she is the shooting star of Korean art, making it as far as the Metropolitan Museum in New York this past January. She has a million fans on Facebook. Now she is showing a selection of her works at the Korean Cultural Center on Leipziger Platz. The show is titled "Geschichte der vorgetäuschten Unschuld" (Story of Feigned Innocence).
The title alludes to the Korean word naesung, an expression for a particularly Korean trait. "In my country, politeness is very important," Kim Hyun Jung explains. "If, for example, you feel hungry while in company, you wouldn't say so — you'd rather eat something later at home."
In her pictures, she reveals what happens when she listens to her stomach. The motif "I Am Also a Woman" shows her shoveling rice into herself. "I don't want to consciously provoke — I simply paint the small world in which I live."
She doesn't squeeze herself into the hanbok, the traditional Korean garment, every day, though. "Of course I sometimes wear jeans too," she says. Before the interview she spent three hours having her hair and makeup done and getting dressed. Beneath the many silk skirts, the 1.60-meter-tall woman had her high heels well hidden.
It's different in her paintings. There, Kim Hyun Jung's legs show through the hanbok skirt. With this she wants to show that it's worth looking behind the facade. And she also hopes that someday, someone will look behind her own facade. "When I meet the man I want to marry, my paintings will change too."