Women’s News | ‘A Tray of Eggs, Marrying Age’ … Korean Painter Kim Hyun Jung Solo Exhibition
Women's News reported that painter Kim Hyun Jung holds her solo exhibition 'A Tray of Eggs, Marrying Age' from September 2 to 14 at Keumboseong Art Center. It reported that she used works borrowing the composition of famous paintings to unpack the anxieties of a younger generation grappling with the new roles and identity of becoming a wife, daughter-in-law, and mother as they face marriage.
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Even a day trip requires preparation. Shouldn't one think it through and study up before marriage, a promise spanning decades of a journey together? Are young people today truly ready to handle the countless changes marriage will bring them?
An exhibition is being held that shares the emotional anxiety felt across the generation gap between parents and their children, and conveys the message that young people's anxiety about marriage isn't something to simply brush off.
Painter Kim Hyun Jung's solo exhibition 'A Tray of Eggs, Marrying Age' runs from the 2nd to the 14th on the first floor of Keumboseong Art Center in Pyeongchang-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
It deals with the process of establishing a sense of self, caught in conflict between the roles others expect of you within relationships and what you truly want for yourself. It captures the artist's own struggle, as she faces the real-world issue of marriage, with the identity she must confront in new roles — as someone's wife, daughter-in-law, and eventually mother.
Through works that borrow the basic composition and imagery of famous paintings, painter Kim introduces how she and her peers in the younger generation are coming to terms with the daunting uncertainty of achieving financial independence, the fear of the unknown territory of childbirth and childrearing, and the pressure of the role of daughter-in-law.
At a survey corner set up in the exhibition space, visitors can organize their own thoughts while also getting a glimpse into the views on marriage held across all generations.
This exhibition was done in collaboration with Studio A Part (photographer Kim Do-hyung) and Golden Needle (director Kim Young-mi).
Painter Kim said, "I thought I'd be unshaken even if my mother's lament that 'my only wish this year is for my daughter to get married' kept echoing like it always does, but at some point I realized it had built up into real stress, and my work had started staring straight at the subject of marriage."
She added, "Among the older generation, there are those who, even while saying 'we just happened to marry when it was time,' still make the unreasonable demand that young people today 'must marry because it's time.' I think that way of thinking is dangerous. Shouldn't you at least think through why you should get married in the first place?"
This exhibition is held with the support of the Korean Fine Arts Association and Keumboseong Art Center, to commemorate painter Kim's Korea Young Artist Award.