Viewers | Artist Kim Hyun Jung: Is a Painter a Spokesperson?

[Face to Face ②] Artist Kim Hyun Jung: Is a Painter a Spokesperson?

Reporter Park Jung-sun | Approved 2019.09.04

Confucius said, "The genius cannot defeat the one who works hard, and the one who works hard cannot defeat the one who enjoys it." Artist Kim Hyun Jung, known for her distinctive expressiveness and style, immersed herself in her work ahead of the exhibition 'A Tray of Eggs, Age to Marry,' sleeping only four hours a day in short bursts. One might expect exhaustion, but she even seems to enjoy the work while communicating with the public through social media.

Communicating with the public goes beyond mere 'fan service' for her. She goes so far as to call them not mere 'audience' but 'teachers.' Indeed, this exhibition, too, benefited from communication with the public — she cleverly channeled the ideas the public threw her way into her own artistic capability.

"Viewers give me a lot of ideas. At first, it wasn't entirely welcome — not everything they say is nice. It stung. But once I decided I needed to fix things, my mind actually became more at ease, and I get a lot of help from it. I run surveys, and even receive stories the way a radio show does. In the end, it's work we do together. They feel less like an audience and more like teachers, don't they? (Laughs)"

Kim Hyun Jung also conducted a survey among people around her asking about the pros and cons of marriage, and says that through the process, her once-vague thoughts about marriage became somewhat clearer.

"Among the survey responses, one person said, 'think of marriage as starting a business.' Before, I thought of marriage as unconditionally a 'negative.' But thinking of it as finding a business partner made it seem interesting. Now I'm going to try to look for that partner."

Communication through social media isn't simply a channel for gathering ideas — it's also a means of overcoming the limits of the direction she ultimately wants to pursue. In that sense, her trajectory is very hopeful. This tendency shows up fully not just in her social media activity but in her work as well. Through 'A Tray of Eggs, Age to Marry,' she sought to build a channel for communication across generations, going beyond mere resonance among her own peers.

"I dare to hope that my work might even come to represent our generation. If my work can spark some topic of conversation among viewers, wouldn't that make this work fairly successful? Even that alone, I think, means this work is fulfilling at least a minimal social role."

"I want to be, to borrow a ski-resort analogy, the beginner slope — a comfortable place where people who aren't interested in art, or don't know much about it, can easily step in..."