Segye Ilbo | [People Pyeon Wan-sik Met] “I Wanted to Playfully Break Through the Image of Youth Trapped by Life’s Constraints and Conventions”

"I wanted to playfully break through the image of youth trapped by life's constraints and conventions"

People Pyeon Wan-sik Met — Painter Kim Hyun Jung, Holding Solo Exhibition 'Naesoong Story'

An exhibition hall in Insadong, Seoul, is bustling these days. Flower wreaths line the entrance, and a banner covers the entire four-story building. With guides and even security staff stationed there, the scene resembles a political rally more than an art exhibition. Crowds of visitors lining up is also a sight rarely seen at ordinary galleries. People chatting with the artist or taking commemorative photos in front of her works evoke a celebrity fan meeting. It's an unusual scene. This is a sketch of the exhibition hall of painter Kim Hyun Jung (27), who is holding her solo exhibition 'Naesoong Story' at Gallery Is through the 11th of next month. The artist depicts the audacious stories of a new-generation woman in hanbok, rendered in ink wash and light color with collage on hanji. These are her own self-portraits, as well as the stories of her peers.

"I believe art needs to breathe together with society. I want to reach out and start a conversation, even with just a small sticker."

Her efforts along these lines are meeting with some success. On weekends, visitor numbers approach 5,000. Some visitors come from as far away as overseas or Jeju Island.

"I'm well aware that some people view the exhibition hall's scene strangely, as unusual. The security staff, too, was a measure considering safety. With so many people gathering, various unexpected situations can arise. Call it wisdom accumulated through several exhibitions. I also worried at first about the many flower wreaths, but decided to leave them as they are, out of basic courtesy to those who sent them."

Having shattered the fixed idea that an exhibition hall should be quiet, she takes the position that while she can accept being misunderstood due to social conventions, she won't compromise on maximizing the essential elements of her work. She has set up a claw-machine and coloring corner as a participatory program in the exhibition hall, to give visitors even a small bit of fun. To communicate with visitors, she also offers an art talk along with a docent guide app she recorded herself. She has also turned flat works into three-dimensional pieces using a 3D printer — blending Korean painting with new technology.

[Photo caption] A work depicting young people rushing headlong toward employment (far right). Through her Naesoong series, artist Kim Hyun Jung delivers a shock to the conventions we unconsciously accept as given.

"There's also an unfavorable view that I'm too flashy for an artist who is still young and should be maturing further. I think a painter is no different from a one-person startup founder. From that standpoint, one shouldn't remain stuck in existing conventions. It becomes clear what needs to be done."

Keeping pace with the times, she is also active in communicating via SNS. She is planning 'social drawing' using social media — completing works together with the public. The women in Kim Hyun Jung's paintings all wear hanbok. But their behavior is far from elegant or classical. They ride horses and motorcycles, or exercise. They play billiards, or gaze at luxury goods while ravenously eating ramen.

"I wanted to give form to the naesoong within a woman who is one thing on the outside and another underneath, through the contrast between clothing and behavior. It's also an expression of an inner desire to break free from conventional perceptions. I wanted to be honest to the point of calling it a modern-day genre painting."

She achieves this unexpected effect by having traditional hanbok coexist with modern daily life.

"You could call it a rebellion against the convention that says: at times like this, you should do this; a person like this should be like that." These days, young women deliberately wearing hanbok around Insadong streets or the old palaces has noticeably increased. Foreign tourists have joined in as well. It is truly an era of hanbok's revival. For the older generation, who wore hanbok only on special occasions, this is a surprising development.

"If the older generation was busy following Western ways, the new generation has come to take interest in hanbok as an effort and means to express who they truly are. You could say they've discovered something good, beyond existing conventions, through travel or online information."

Her approach to Korean painting is understood in the same context. Bold to the point of audacious. Yet it resonates because it reflects everyday scenes. It's like witnessing the delight and catharsis of Korean painting. The shadow of Joseon-era genre painter Shin Yun-bok flickers within it. Take the work 'Sampo Generation.' A woman riding a golden ox wears her employee badge around her neck. Resolute, even sorrowful. This is the face of today's youth. Sorrow is the starting point for releasing mental stress. We laugh and find comfort in the audacious idea born of disharmony. Her Naesoong Story is inspired by the elegance and secrecy hanbok conveys. It depicts unguarded, everyday scenes of women in hanbok. The translucent hanbok, revealing what lies beneath, can be called naesoong's coming out. To render the hanbok translucent, she personally dyes thin hanji and applies a collage technique.

"I hope that through the transgression of breaking hanbok's formality, people can reflect on the constraints that bind us. I want to help release, on their behalf, the hearts that feel unfree within society, within organizations."

Everyone finds it frightening to face their own bare face. Is there anyone who can look directly at themselves without rationalizing or embellishing?

"Facing the self hidden within naesoong — that requires courage and effort to break the mold."

Naesoong is the story hidden within the wide, elegant and secretive folds of a skirt. They say one should live with some slack, but that's easier said than done. Convention, gaze, roles, expectations — these are the constraints of life surrounding us. Even the smallest things set off a fierce contest within our thoughts. The moment others' gaze gathers, what steadies our trembling hearts is transgression. Only then does convention disappear, and a new game begins. What has been hidden away — clumsy, careless, yet capable of easily lifting a sack of rice — is our familiar yet sometimes unfamiliar, unadorned true self.

"I think painting is a self-portrait, honestly unpacking the self bound by others' gaze, and a process of finding myself. I hope that the more I paint, the more I come to feel that my life is growing more beautiful."

At the exhibition hall, she always appears dressed formally in hanbok. But it wasn't always so.

"When I first held an exhibition themed on naesoong, a hanbok master came to see it. Seeing my profession, he asked if there wasn't something wrong with the way I dressed the garment. I was truly embarrassed at that moment."

She realized she knew too little about the very subject she was depicting, and came to understand that wearing it as much as possible and coming to know it through daily life was the only way to truly understand hanbok. That's why, even now, she always wears hanbok when active outside. This 'real practice' becomes the painting itself.

Korean painting first brings to mind ink landscape painting. More artists are emerging who present Korean painting with a young sensibility, capturing their own everyday lives.

"I'm happiest when people say, more than any other kind of praise, 'Ah, this is fun, this is delightful, this is exhilarating' about my paintings."

One hopes her work, combining traditional technique with everyday life, becomes a barometer showing the diverse possibilities of Korean painting. A graduate of Sun Hwa Arts High School and Seoul National University's Department of Oriental Painting, her exhibition continues through April 11.

Written by — Pyeon Wan-sik (Segye Ilbo, 'People Met by Pyeon Wan-sik')