Artists creating the real landscape (Kim Inseon, Willing N Dealing)

An exhibition starts from the casual question thrown by the artists; a question was "do Korean paintings feature unique identities of Korea?" which came up from a small group comprised of an artist, Kang SeokHo and other artists working with various media and curators. This group of artists holds regular but casual meetings and talk about diverse aspects of arts in general and this question came up one day. Being one of the members, Kang SeokHo plans to hold an exhibition to give some answers to that question, and this made him visit the “Gallery Factory.” I joined this project as a co-curator to give some hands and to help conceptualizing and processing his ideas. However, the reality is that Korean painting has much been affected by Chinese painting techniques and materials, as well as from the West, in the name of Western materials. So the initial aim- to find the unique Korean identity in modern Korean paintings- has been changed; how to create with authentic and unique style in the world of paintings. In that sense, this exhibition not only shows the locality of works, but it also involves the true meaning of artists’ attitude toward their works. Nevertheless, introducing “Korean paintings within the world” is very important. Although we have the same art techniques and materials as the other nations do, when I go overseas, artists and curators always ask me about the distinguishable characteristics that Korean paintings have. People outside of Korea are trying to find the core differences among Korean, Japanese and Chinese arts. We also, attempt to find the uniqueness from contemporary Korean paintings. This exhibition, “Korean Paintings” is a work conducted from a macroscopic perspective. Every year it will show a unit that could put some artists in a group. At the same time, those artists put into a certain group will seek some specific categories that create the archive. During the process, we hope to see the actual identity of Korean paintings or even find a clue.

There are five participating artists in this exhibition: some of them majored in Western painting while others majored in traditional Korean painting. Some of them studied in foreign countries, and some others had experiences of stopping and restarting to paint. While some of them have been actively working with commercial galleries, the others have been working with non-profit organizations. This group of five artists could be small but it could be a large assembly for their varieties in experiences and backgrounds: it is a collection of various artists. Each one of them has a very unique style and identity, also applying the authenticities to their works. They are: Kang, SeokHo; Kim, BoMin; Kim, SuYoung; Roh, ChoongHyun and Park, YoungKil. What they have in common is a “photo” as a mediator. As mentioned earlier, the first series of this exhibition, titled “Korean Paintings – Reading photographs” will show the archive-styled exhibition. (Another version of the exhibition “Korean paintings – painting photographs”, by the same artists will be held at 16 bungee gallery during the similar period) Participating artists paint the same landscape, and here the “landscape” means a lot. One might draw a particular space, while others depict specific parts. Works by Kang, SeokHo who draws clothes or body parts, or Kim SuYoung who usually paints a part of the building are considered as landscape since we define landscape as any nearest environment around us.

All of these five artists use cameras to record and analyze the scene. However, they reveal their personality through their actions while physical activities and brain works come beforehand. Images on their canvas are from their photo works, but before that, they were recognized by each artist’s eyes. They experience the landscape or the subject with one’s senses and whole body before taking photos. Moreover, it is important to share one’s work with others, since the exhibition is being produced as an archive. So both closed and public seminars will be held during the preparation and opening of the exhibition.

Artist Kim, SuYoung always carries her camera and takes shots of facades of buildings. It means that her senses know what she will paint and how she will complete her job. Sometimes she finds things at her office that she didn’t recognize while taking photos. Landscape that she remembers is different from scenery she took with her camera. The actual appearance of the space in the photo gets very abstract in her mind and eyes. It’s recognized as coexistence in a reality and unreal world. A recording medium called camera gives you a very objective view as it shows different look from what you remember with your bare eyes. So SuYoung’s works give an abstract view although she draws from reality. Images on the canvas sway in between concreteness and abstractness just like the reality and illusion. The audience will feel the target disappearing as if he or she looks at the illusion in a real space.

There are artists who don’t really rely on the deictic information in photographs. Roh, ChoongHyun is one of them. He relies on photographs only for the overall frame of landscape and doesn’t care much on details of photographs. It means that it doesn’t really matter how the original place looks like for him because things that consist of the place are not the objects of his work. ChoongHyun’s works give you impressions that landscape is melting as if you are looking outside through the window. Whether objects were water, buildings, or trees, they are all being softened and smoothened by paint and brushes. You feel ‘texture of space,’ just like what he expressed. The reasons of drawing are to visualize the feeling of air between us and objects. That is also one of reasons why he doesn’t put people in his work. Things that move could be distracting to capture the space; he deleted people to recognize only the space. In images that went through his hands, there are no people who originally existed in the photographs. The images in his work are real but at the same time, feel imaginary things and give you mysterious senses.

On the other hand, Park, YoungGil’s work is very detailed to record exact impressions of objects. YoungGil tries to reflect interaction and emotions at the site through taking as many pictures as he can. Drawing would be one of pre-work but a camera is also essential. He takes pictures of people who randomly pass by. In order to capture natural poses and atmosphere of people or animals, his direction should be excluded. That’s why he takes pictures of people at somewhere very far away with a telephoto lens. Through the process, photographs refresh his memories. The pre-drawing would allow him to draw what he saw from the landscape and he finds what he missed at the site through looking at the photographs he took at the same place. A number of drawings and memories from the photographs help him to remember sense he felt there. The images in his work are also real but at the same time, give you mysterious senses.

Kim, BoMin also studied traditional Koran paintings like Park, YoungGil did, but she has slightly different opinions about photographs. She said that photographs just appoint a frame for the landscape in a busy city and artist’ work is to fill in the inside of the frame through their imagination and memories. The reason that photographs should be accurate is that they offer a basis of paintings but she tries to draw that are not very much related to the actual landscape. Just like ChoongHyun said, she also agrees to the idea that photographs could be used but never can play a center role in her works. Photographs are only used as a beginning idea, and the artist’s hands and brain complete the work. Ironically, a camera is essential for her work. It seems like that her objective is to draw her own world that is unrealistic and far away from the photographs.

Kang, SeokHo uses pictures that he took, searched on internet, and those from the magazines. He chooses some of the images and some of them are chosen by others. No matter where the images are from, they are edited and cut by him which is a process of obtaining a body part for his work. It’s not just description of human body. It’s microscopic approach that narrows his view from the landscape to people and find very specific details of human body. He, then, finds his own landscape. His work could be voyeuristic because the objects are human body but eventually, it turns out as a whole new landscape. His voyeuristic view also stimulates an audience’s voyeurism. Drawing a head, back, or chest of human body was one of his ways to say that characteristics of people vary and they are found anywhere in their bodies. A body part with beautiful colors of clothes that fills the canvas makes the audience to feel like they are looking at a painting that describes a border of reality and an unreal world.

We encounter ‘the Real landscape” through their work. “The Real landscape painting” (‘Jingyeong Sansuhwa’ in Korean) painting was an innovative trial that was based on real-scenery landscape painting of Korea from traditional Korean painting. Photographs help Korean contemporary artists to create their own landscape through reality of the photographs and artists’ idealistic imagination. Photographs record memories and at the same time, they give artists landscape to be compared. While the artist draws pictures, the scene that he saw in person and the objective scene that a camera captured are all passed through his eyes again. As SuYoung said “Every artist draws different pictures even the photograph they used was the same,” artists necessarily put their own views and emotions into their works. A process of reading a photograph or moving it into their work is leading the audience into artists’ unpredictable imagination.