Citylife | Cover Story: A See-Through Beauty in Ink-Wash Coloring, Pop Art in Korean Painting

Cover Story

A See-Through Beauty in Ink-Wash Coloring, Pop Art in Korean Painting

INTERVIEW

"The Naesoong series isn't work made for others' eyes, but for looking at myself"

TIP

Why has B-grade sensibility settled into the art world?

→ The explosive expansion of the contemporary art market (the total auction sale value in 2013 was twice that of 2006)

→ The cycle of producing new work is shortening.

→ Prolonged recession is shaking the foundations of pop culture.

→ A new style has emerged among people: a poor but stylish way of living.

A Beauty Playing Pocket Billiards... The Idol of the Korean Painting World, Kim Hyun Jung

The character playing pocket billiards in a see-through hanbok originates from the personal experience of the artist — a graduate of Seoul National University's Oriental Painting department — who felt pressure from others' 'gaze' from a young age. We spoke with Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung (27), who says she spent a year planning 'Naesoong Olympics,' about her 'playful Korean painting.'

Why do you keep returning to the Naesoong series? The Naesoong series is my confessional self-portrait, aimed at breaking free from 'gaze' and 'convention' toward a state of freedom. Since adolescence I've been quite conscious of others' eyes, and I started the 'Naesoong series' as a way of asking myself, in search of a self grown faint, 'What kind of person am I?' or 'What kind of person should I become?'

Could you tell us about your process for the beauty paintings? I sketch out a composition, take reference photos to help with the underdrawing, and then render the self-portrait as a nude. To dress the figure in semi-transparent hanbok, I dye thin hanji myself and then collage it on. The see-through hanbok becomes a metaphor for naesoong. It looks 'see-through,' but the technique is actually adapted from Goryeo Buddhist paintings, which rendered transparency by drawing the robes with white outlines.

Even though it's Korean painting, it comes across as playful, almost like pop art. I thought, let's have her do something entirely un-dignified while wearing the dignified, elegant hanbok. I wanted to hold onto traditional technique while finding elements that speak to contemporary art. I'd love for people who see my paintings to drop the prejudice that Korean painting is outdated and stuffy, and to be able to laugh instead. I want art to be enjoyed as widely as popular music. I want to communicate a great deal with the public — that's also why I use social media.

Cutting-edge consumer items like a Chanel bag, Starbucks, and fashion magazines appear alongside the figures. My paintings are self-confessional diaries, with my honest thoughts embedded as much as possible in the titles and subject matter. The piece titled 'Oops (我差),' which attaches the character 差 (lacking) to 我 (I), is a metaphor for a flawed state of being while also being the exclamation 'Oops!' itself. The protagonist is so absorbed in eating ramen that she doesn't notice coffee spilling and soaking her bag. Drinking Starbucks coffee, worth several times more than the ramen she's eating, while eating instant noodles can also be read as a bit of playful irony. Through the contrast between traditional dress and modern accessories, I wanted to say that the ideas we hold can sometimes be uncritical conventions. Recovering a self free from the indiscriminate control that others' gaze exerts over us is the core of the 'Naesoong Story.'

A girl in a see-through skirt, a colorful jeogori, and deep-red high heels styled like traditional rubber shoes eats ramen over a gas burner and plays pocket billiards. Elsewhere, she does sit-ups with a Chanel bag and Starbucks coffee beside her. With fresh ideas, themes, and technique that have earned her a reputation for being 'audacious,' artist Kim Hyun Jung, riding a wave of popularity, attempts new transformations grounded in the theory and technique of orthodox Korean painting. Painting self-portraits in an ink-wash coloring style rarely seen among young Korean painters, Kim set the record for most visitors since Gana Art Center opened. At this solo exhibition, 'Naesoong Olympics,' the artist herself signed autographs dressed in colorful hanbok with braided hair, just like the beauties in her paintings. Critics have said the 21st-century genre paintings she creates prove that 'Korean painting can be just as hot as pop art.' The idea for '2014 Naesoong Olympics,' one of the works in her ongoing Naesoong series, came from watching citizens exercising at Yangjae Citizens' Park last fall. Professor Sun Seung-hye of the Seoul Museum of Art, who wrote that the artist "shows our own self-portrait, bound by others' gaze, and through that awareness points toward the liberation of a self held captive," also observed, "The artist calls it 'naesoong,' but to others it looks like 'the energy of self-affirmation.'"

"No highbrow rhetoric is needed. Men respond instinctively to a pretty face, women competitively. The eye is drawn to the body. There's as much effort visible in the work as there is popularity, and also the wisdom to make that popularity nourishment for further growth."

1. 'Swag or Die: Naive Lady' (2014), ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 112×134cm

2. 'You Did Well Today, Too' (2014), ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 107×165cm

3. 'Naesoong: A Chance Encounter, Disguised' (2014), ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 129×153cm each

4. 'Oops' (2014), ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 145×117cm

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Lee Mi-jung, 'A Painting of a Hundred Girls' (2013), lenticular, 60×100cm

Where to Find the Exploding B-Grade Imagination of Emerging Artists

Hannam-dong's 'Amado Art Space,' renamed from 'Gaseum Lounge,' is a nonprofit art institution in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Housed in a converted three-story residence, it hosts alternative exhibition programs, while the Amado Art Research Institute, ten meters away, holds seminars and symposiums. The 'Amado Annuale: Now in Progress' exhibition is a 'progressive biennale' that presents participating artists' existing or newly developed works in a pre-open format, evolving the installed works through repeated open discussions among artists, curators, and critics. Conceived as a counterpoint to conventional biennales, it is discourse- and process-centered rather than result-centered, in contrast to commercial biennales. The exhibition aims to share aesthetic values between older and younger generations of artists and to discover emerging curators and artists under the age of 40.

Amado Art Space 02-790-1178 http://amadoart.org 683-31 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul / Amado Art Research Institute 683-94 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Common Center Rather than explaining which artist made which work, it lets viewers focus on the paintings themselves, displayed on walls with peeling wallpaper or bare, exposed surfaces. Opened last November, it presents itself not as a traditional commercial gallery made up of 'collector-dealer-artist,' but as a gallery run 'by artists themselves.' Choosing the name 'Center' rather than 'museum' or 'gallery' was itself an attempt to break free from those labels. Ham Young-jun serves as director, with graphic designers Kim Young-na and Kim Hyung-jae and artist Lee Eun-woo participating as 'members'; the number of members directly involved in operations is expected to grow further. Proceeds from art sales, after covering minimum operating costs, go toward funding new exhibitions. Various grants, residencies, part-time lecturing, and a one-day-only painting exhibition series called 'Today's Salon' are held there.

070-7715-8232 www.commoncenter.kr 823-2 Gyeongin-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul

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