조영남 전시 리뷰~

Cho's 'extraordinary endeavors' on show

 

Veteran pop star Cho Young-nam has more talents than singing. He can paint, write and he also hosts radio shows. He modestly calls these activities his "ttanjit," or "extraordinary endeavors."

"In some sense, I've been making extraordinary endeavors all my life. I entered the vocal music department in Seoul National University, where I did not end up doing classical music but became a pop singer and also started to paint. Then I suddenly went to Trinity Biblical University and studied music there. And I didn't get much sleep lately, writing a book," He said at a recent press conference.

His "extraordinary endeavors," however, became much more than just a hobby.

He has been hosting his own radio show "The Radio World of Cho Young-nam and Choi Yoo-ra" for 18 years, he published numerous books on art and culture and became known in the art community as the "hwatu artist" He has held more than 50 solo exhibitions in and out of the country.

A sample of his interests are showcased at his solo exhibition "Ode to Extraordinary Endeavors" currently underway at Lotte Gallery in central Seoul.

There, one can find his paintings featuring "hwatu," or Korean playing cards pictured with colored flowers, as well as others depicting musical notes and paintings he created in memory of Yi Sang, a late Korean poet and writer.

His hwatu paintings, which have became his trademark, symbolize his love for art while the musical notes, of course, signify his singing career. In some paintings, the two subjects are painted together.

"Art and music are not separated, but are one in my mind. My songs are touching enough when I paint well and my paintings are moving when I sing well," he said.

The paintings for Yi Sang are in connection with his book to be published next month.

"There are many papers about Yi Sang but not an appropriate manual to easily understand his work. So I set to work. I've always thought that Yi is better than occidental poets such as Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Edgar Allen Poe or T.S. Eliot, and I realized I was right while I was working on the book," Cho said.

Being computer-illiterate, he wrote the book by hand. Perhaps he was too absorbed in his work - he was recently hospitalized for about a week due to a stroke.

On the opening day of his exhibition, however, Cho seemed to be healthy as ever. He hosted the opening of the exhibition almost on his own, shoving his microphone in front of visitors' faces and asking them questions.

His friends and fans seemed excited at the chance to share their anecdotes about Cho. Some of them were the actual subjects that appeared in Cho's recent work "Terracotta Warrior Female Friends 2."

Cho pasted the faces of his "girl friends" - including TV celebrities like Lee Kyung-sil, Song Eun-ee and Park Mi-sun, as well as his daughter - onto replicated bodies of ancient Chinese terracotta warriors.

"Like how the warriors did for Emperor Qin Shi Huang, I believe these friends will guard me after my death. I asked them in advance, to send me their photos if they are willing to keep me safe afterwards, and these are the ones who did," he said proudly. Well-known for his numerous female friends, he admitted that he gets inspiration from them.

"Inspiration? Of course I get it from young, pretty, nice and rich girls. I enjoy chatting, reading books, watching movies and shopping with them."

The exhibition runs through Feb. 17 at Lotte Gallery in Avenuel in Sogong-dong, central Seoul. For more information, call (02) 726-4428.

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young