Duksung Women’s University Newspaper | Painting Is a Process of Capturing One’s Own World on Paper

Who could have imagined a woman, dressed in fine hanbok, hair neatly braided, crouching on the ground eating jjajangmyeon or making kimchi? This is the young Korean painter who broke conventional notions of Oriental painting with such daring subject matter — 27-year-old Kim Hyun Jung (hereafter "the artist"). We met her to hear about her life as a young female painter and her artistic world.

Falling

Deeply for the Charm of Oriental Painting

The artist says she dreamed of becoming a painter from a young age. "Thanks to parents deeply interested in art, I visited many museums from an early age. Then my older sister started studying art first, and watching her, I think I naturally started art myself too. Younger sisters usually try to follow their older sisters (laughs). Becoming interested in painting was, in a way, extremely natural for me."

The artist entered Sunhwa Arts High School, nurturing the dream of becoming a painter she had held since childhood. Originally interested in design, she felt drawn to Korean ink painting around her first year of high school and chose Oriental Painting as her major. "The emotion I felt reading the late Oh Ju-seok's book 'A Special Lecture on Korean Beauty' still stays vivid with me. Thanks to that book, I could feel the high artistic level of ink expressed in Korean painting. Even with repeated layering, ink painting never becomes murky or thick. Through layering, you can bring out the tonal gradation of ink, and even create a sense of transparency. Isn't that quite fascinating?" The charm of ink painting she first felt in high school led her to choose Oriental Painting, and continues to draw her in even now. "Oriental painting is transparent and warm. It's not artificial at all. That, I think, is the charm of Oriental painting. Because the materials come from nature, they're not harsh but friendly. You can touch them with your hands, and even eating them wouldn't cause harm. Of course, there's no need to actually eat them (laughs)."

She Who Loved Hanbok

Expresses It Through Hanbok

The artist first made a name for herself with the public through the exhibition 'Naesoong Story.' Her works are audacious and delightful. The women in her paintings generally wear hanbok while doing things entirely mismatched with it. A woman in hanbok gazes at her luxury bag while eating ramyeon in a shabby manner; a woman in hanbok rides a hamburger delivery motorcycle. The artist's works capture ordinary, unceremonious moments of daily life while wearing hanbok. "The Naesoong series started from a dislike of people whose outside and inside differ. But now, the work doesn't simply contain criticism of people whose outside and inside differ. I'm developing the work in the direction of confessing my own essence."

Hanbok is a very important formal element in the artist's paintings. "Since childhood, I encountered hanbok while following my parents to events like weddings. Every time, hanbok looked so pretty that I wished I could wear it every day." Loving hanbok, she saw it as a good means to express "naesoong." "The contrast between elegant, refined hanbok and the somewhat comical activities of everyday life — in other words, the contrast between traditional dress and modern props — shows that the ideas we hold might be uncritically accepted conventions. In truth, this kind of contrast could be expressed through other props too, but I'm drawn more to hanbok. Personally, I truly love the lines and colors of our hanbok, its patterns, and the accessories worn with it. That distinctive beauty seems more than enough to strongly stimulate my desire for expression."

The Process of Painting

Is the Process of Finding Myself

The model for the artist's work is herself. "I pose, take a photograph, and then sketch based on that body. At first, I draw the figure nude. Then, as if dressing my own body in hanbok, I attach hanji onto the painting. Before attaching the hanji, I dye thin hanji myself to express the translucent hanbok. The translucent hanbok carries the meaning that 'its inside is fully visible.'" In this way, the artist said she embeds the meaning of the work even in the working process itself.

She also experienced her own transformation through this work. "To express the figure more realistically, I used photographs I took myself, posing directly, as reference material. Although I was the model, at first I didn't think the figure created through the work was me. I thought I was overlaying another person's personality onto it. Then one day, looking at myself in the mirror, I suddenly realized that the person captured on canvas and the person in the mirror were the same person. The figure in the painting, which I had thought was someone else, resembled the me of today — not only in appearance but in 'being unable to boldly reveal her own self, conscious of others' gazes' — far too closely." Having thus discovered herself objectified within the painting, she decided to focus on her true self and inner world from then on. "Although I can't conclude with certainty what kind of person I am, I thought that if I honestly lay bare my current state — bound by others' gazes — I would gradually become a little more confident before people's eyes."

The artist said she is still continuing to search for her true self. "Artistic work feels like the process of capturing an artist's own world on paper. That's why accurately looking at oneself matters most. Judging others is easy, but looking at oneself objectively is, surprisingly, very difficult. Through confessional work about my daily life and current state, I am coming to know my true self. Most of the subject matter in my paintings reflects my everyday behavior or habits, and revealing myself through painting is at once an artistic endeavor and an honest confession of reflection on life."

To Students

Taking a Step Toward Society

The artist also offered words of encouragement to university students working to become experts in their field. "Success, I think, is a matter that varies depending on where you place value. So rather than chasing success alone, I think it's important to enjoy what you do. There wasn't a specifically set path for me to debut as an artist either, but by continuously working and exhibiting, I've somehow come this far." The artist also said setting goals is important. "If you only chase a distant future, a grand dream, it will feel vague. You should divide the timeline into 5 years, 1 year, 6 months, 1 month, 2 weeks, 1 week, set goals accordingly, and make sure they don't remain mere plans."

Finally, the reporter asked for a word of advice to fellow students at Duksung Women's University. "I know it's not easy for women to gather together and study. Competing is fine, but I hope you'll also cheer each other on and encourage one another. To put it in terms of elementary school students: however hard you fight to beat the person next to you, in the end you're only beating second place to become first — but that's not national first place, so it's meaningless. In the same way, I think fighting with the friend next to you is meaningless. What matters is moving forward together. What I've come to feel through life is that female leaders are hidden everywhere. If they joined forces, they could wield even greater influence — that's something I feel a bit of regret about. Also, in social life, there are moments when you get looked down on for being a young woman. It can make you angry, but the more that happens, the more you need to show that you're working even harder. So the last thing I want to say is: 'Women, let's unite!' (laughs)"

Reporter Kim Yu-bin, sallykim6306@

Written by — Reporter Kim Yu-bin