IBK Industrial Bank of Korea | A Beautiful Retirement — This Welcome Person
An interview from IBK Industrial Bank of Korea's in-house magazine 'This Welcome Person' (Winter 2015 issue). It introduces the working method and reasons behind the 'Naesoong' series, which Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung began in 2009 to caricature the duality of human nature, and her choice of hanbok as subject matter. It also covers her preparations for the solo exhibition 'Naesoong Amusement Park,' planned for March 2016.
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Zero Pretense: Meeting an Honest, Confident Woman
Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung
Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung says she began painting on the theme of 'naesoong' in 2009, to caricature the duality of human nature. In her early twenties, hurt by people who acted one way and were another underneath, she chose hanbok — a garment carrying both elegance and secrecy — as the subject through which to express these people whose true selves were hard to read. Yet the more she worked, the more her own image found its way into the paintings, and through this autobiographical story, artist Kim Hyun Jung continues to communicate with all of us living today.
The secret revealed beneath elegant hanbok
A woman dressed elegantly in hanbok sits on a toilet, engrossed in her smartphone ('Naesoong: There's a Certain Charm,' 2012). With one knee raised, sitting sprawled on the floor, she takes a bite of delivery food set atop a parcel box ('Naesoong: The Perfect Meal,' 2013). Ladling ramyeon straight from an aluminum pot lid, she gasps 'oops' as she watches brand-name coffee spill onto her luxury bag ('Naesoong: Oops (我差),' 2012).
Her hair neatly pinned, her nails elaborately done with nail art, dressed elegantly — yet in stark contrast to that composed exterior, the woman in the painting acts with unfiltered boldness and honesty. It looks so much like ourselves that it draws an involuntary laugh.
Meeting her in person, artist Kim Hyun Jung was just as delightful and honest as the protagonists in her paintings. Saying that communicating with people through her paintings makes her happy, she suddenly appeared among us in 2012, the year she graduated from the Oriental Painting department at Seoul National University's College of Fine Arts.
"As a college student barely past twenty, I was hurt often in my relationships with people. In particular, I was confused by the gaze of people who defined me based on just one facet, or said they had 'expectations' of me while judging me behind my back. Sensitive as I was to other people's gaze, its weight felt truly burdensome, and around that time I held considerable resentment toward those casting aggressive judgment and criticism my way. The 'Naesoong Series' — women wearing elegant hanbok while doing things that don't match it at all — started from an intention to caricature their duplicity."
Artist Kim Hyun Jung, who let traditional dress and modern daily life coexist and, rarely for Korean painting, brought a contemporary sensibility to the theme of naesoong — the gap between outside and inside in a woman — defines naesoong not as something confined to women, but as a common 'inconsistency' that appears when ordinary people, driven by the universal desire to be recognized by others, hide their shortcomings and try to show their better side.
Kim Hyun Jung's witty, satirical work truly needs to be seen in person to feel the full depth of its beauty. This is because, just as one wears layer upon layer of hanbok, the working process too goes through layers, built up one on top of another. In her process, she takes two rounds of photographs — one to capture the body's silhouette for the underdrawing, and another taken in the same pose while wearing hanbok.
"Once the photo shoot is done, I draw the underdrawing on backing paper based on the body-silhouette photo, and once the sketch is finished, I move into coloring. When coloring, the figure is rendered in light, pale color (damchae), and objects in bold, opaque color (jinchae). Finally, I dress the figure through ink-wash coloring or collage."
To convey the message running through the Naesoong series — 'you can see right through her' — artist Kim Hyun Jung renders hanbok translucently. Using a dyeing technique she learned from a dyeing master, she dyes hanji herself and hand-applies it piece by piece using collage technique. Bringing in the collage technique from Western art was a way to maximize the see-through effect while also capturing the rustling texture of hanbok fabric. It's a detail that reveals her passion for capturing a fleeting idea and giving it form in her work.
Honest, but never audacious
Artist Kim Hyun Jung began painting around age ten. It was partly because she had an older sister who painted, but also because the moments spent painting were the only ones that could heal her memories of sadness and hardship — she couldn't stop. Among the many fields of art, she chose Korean painting after reading art historian Oh Ju-seok's book Lectures on Korean Beauty.
"I was hooked the moment I read the passage that entertainingly explained teacher Kim Hong-do's paintings while describing the high level of mastery ink wash painting reaches within Korean painting. I learned that ink wash, no matter how many times you layer it, doesn't turn the surface muddy or heavy — in fact it gives a transparent feeling — and that you can bring out the subtle charm of light and dark. The charm of Korean painting I discovered then still pulls at me today."
Dreaming of 'social drawing,' together with you
Artist Kim Hyun Jung confesses that, through the working process, she realized the Naesoong series — born from personal reflection on conventional gaze and people whose outsides and insides don't match — ultimately depicts not other people, but herself.
'You're the same way. No use blaming others. Mind your own business.'
That was the voice from within, directed at herself. It was much easier to draw once she placed herself onto the figure of the person she'd wanted to criticize. At the same time, there was a process of accepting her own image, seen objectively. It felt almost like being stripped bare, but through that very process, she was able to confidently reveal not 'Kim Hyun Jung the Korean painter,' but Kim Hyun Jung the human being.
Works carrying this kind of honesty drew the hearts of the public through social media. In 2014, her solo exhibition titled 'Naesoong Olympics,' held over ten days at Gana Art Center, drew about 24,000 visitors. More than anything, she was happiest that the 'communication' she'd been pursuing had been achieved.
"The gaze of people who defined me based on just one facet, or said they had 'expectations' of me while judging me behind my back, confused me. The 'Naesoong Series' — women wearing elegant hanbok while doing things that don't match it at all — started from an intention to caricature their duplicity."
As a member of the new generation of Korean painters, she enjoys communicating with the public through social media — blog, Facebook, Instagram, and more. She exchanges comments freely with her fans and sometimes draws inspiration from them. She herself coined the term guiding her ultimate direction — 'social drawing,' combining 'social' and 'drawing.'
"I dream of using social networks so the public and the artist can discuss a piece of work together, and go on to complete a piece together. It could become an extension of participatory art, and I hope it can offer everyone the experience of, in a sense, owning a piece of the same work. I want to become someone who contributes to art being seen not as some difficult, specialized field, but as a familiar genre anyone can partake in and enjoy."
Artist Kim Hyun Jung is currently preparing a month-long solo exhibition, 'Naesoong Amusement Park,' occupying every floor of Gallery IS in Insadong, running from March 15 to April 12, 2016. Her wish to turn the exhibition hall into a joyful playground where visitors themselves take part already has us looking forward to her amusement park.