국립현대미술관 정창섭전 리뷰

Chung’s mulberry papers create cultured calm

 

The second exhibition room in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, seems like an ideal world of tranquility that exists far away from the hustle and bustle of the city, especially after walking past Paik Nam-june’s flashy media work “Samramansang” which is installed near the room.

Monotone paintings by veteran artist Chung Chang-sub fill the walls there, amazingly turning the place even more serene and simpler than when it was void.

Chung, one of the first graduates of the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University and currently an honorary professor there, is one of the doyens of Korean art. After his successful debut in 1952, winning the special prize at the National Art Competition, Chung led some of Korea’s important art movements such as Art Informel.

Ironically, however, the “Chang-Sup Chung Retrospective” is his first-ever solo exhibition held at a national museum.

“This might be his last one, too, because he is in critical condition. He never enjoyed presenting himself or cared much about promoting his works. That’s probably why he is less known compared to his close friends like Park Seo-bo or Kim Tschang-yeul. Now is the time that a national museum shed light on his works,” said Lee Sun-ryung, curator of the exhibition.

Chung Chang-sub

Like the artist himself, his artworks are the kind that do not make a strong first impression but reveal much more by not expressing too much. His last series, “Mukgo,” which means the thoughts of silence, is the epitome of Chung’s works.

The secret to his calm but profound paintings is “dakjongi,” or Korean traditional paper made from mulberry bark.

A view of the exhibition “Chang-Sup Chung Retrospective” (National Museum of Contemporary Art)

“Chung practiced Informel paintings after learning the basics of Western painting but was not fond of the gooey and thick texture of oil paint. So he tried to come up with ways to naturalize the texture, like by painting it thin and runny as possible. And one day in the mid 1970s, he met his fate, dakjongi,” said Lee.

“The shades and colors of the works vary although they may be the same kind of dakjongi. The artist hand-dyed dakjongi to bring out the exact color and shade he wanted and made the wrinkles one by one after placing them on the canvas.”

A docent program for the hearing-impaired runs every Wednesday and Saturday, based on reservations.

Musician Hwang Byung-ki’s mini gayageum, or 12-stringed Korean zither, recital will take place at the exhibition hall on Aug.14, which will perfectly harmonize with the exhibition.

The exhibition runs through Oct. 17 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Tickets are 1,500 won for students and 3,000 won for adults. For more information, call (02) 2188-6000 or visit www.moca.go.kr.

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldm.com)

달은 가장 오래된 시계다

Time captured at Deoksugung museum

 

We make a habit of saying that we have no time, although we feel and experience the presence of time through various changes like the seasons and our physical state.

A soap sculpture by Shin Mi-kyung (National Museum of Art)

Inspired by this irony, Kim Nam-in, one of the youngest curators at the National Museum of Art, decided to offer the public an opportunity to take a closer look at the passage of time and so organized the exhibition “Passing Hours: Moon is the Oldest Clock.”

The exhibition is currently underway at the National Museum of Art, Deoksugung, which Kim thought would be the perfect venue to feel time flying by.

“I often find it peculiar that there is this old palace and garden in the middle of Gwanghwamun, one of the busiest places in Seoul. If you looked down from the sky, it would look like a tiny breathing hole,” said Kim.

“I had a chance to look at the original plan for the palace while organizing the exhibition. I was surprised to see the place looked exactly the same, from the walls we can tear down and the walls we can’t. Deoksugung is one of the rarest places in Seoul where we can really see the different layers of time piled up.”

Time-themed paintings, sculptures, video and installation works by 11 Korean contemporary artists, including some of Korea’s best known -- Kang Ik-joong, John Bae and late video artists Park Hyun-ki and Paik Nam-june -- are on display.

This is the first time such contemporary works have been on show inside the Deoksugung museum, which used to exhibit more calm and traditional works.

Categorized into four sections -- “River,” “Water,” “Moon,” “String” -- each of which is a metaphor of flowing time, the modern exhibits fit in beautifully with the Korean traditional palace.

“Storyteller’s Dilemma” by John Bae (National Museum of Art)

Among the exhibits, Shin Mee-kyoung’s soap sculptures are probably the most time-sensitive. She installed six outdoors and six indoors, which will be left in the hands of nature during the exhibition period.

“Even I don’t know how they will end up. I’m eagerly looking forward to seeing the results, too,” said Shin.

The rest of the exhibits may not dramatically change during the exhibition but are still interestingl.

Kim Ho-deuk hung white sheets of traditional paper above a shallow dish 4 meters wide and 18 meters long filled with black Chinese ink for the “River” section. Under the dim lights, the ink makes shadows on the paper, which waver like the river.

Han Eun-sun displays how water and paint smudge on the canvas as time goes by through her paintings at the next division. She also showcased practise paintings she did before creating the final piece in a small room to show another trace of time.

A room features many paintings Han Eun-sun went through before creating her final version of the “Water Going Up.”

The “Moon” and the “String” section showcases quite old and familiar works like Paik Nam-june and Park Hyun-ki’s video arts or John Bae’s wire sculptures. But seeing them in Deoksugung, under a significant theme, they appear somewhat different.

The exhibition runs through July 4 at National Museum of Art, Deoksugung in central Seoul. Tickets are 5,000 won for adults and 2,500 won for adolescents.

After the Seoul show, the exhibition will also be held in The National Gallery for Foreign Art in Bulgaria and The National Gallery in Prague, Czech, from August through October to commemorate 20th anniversaries of the relationships between those countries and Korea.

For more information, call (02) 2188-6062 or visit www.moca.go.kr

By Park Min-young   (claire@heraldm.com)

젊은모색 30주년 기념전 리뷰

Artists may grow old but their works are timeless

 

Every old man was once an ambitious boy. Artists are no exception.

“I am embarrassed to be reintroducing the works I’ve done in my 20s now in my 60s. Young people tend to be critical towards society, don’t they? I was too, although I now do different kinds of works,” artist Kim Yong-chul told the press Friday at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon.

Kim was one of the 22 rising Korean artists who participated in the “Young Korean Artists Exhibition” organized by the museum in 1981. He had taken a picture of himself holding a blank newspaper and scribbled “This is but a piece of paper” on it with oil paint for the show.

“It was a satire on the newspapers of that time which could not function normally under the military dictatorship. I wrote the sentence in English because I was scared they might come after me after reading it in Korean,” Kim reminisced.

Thirty years have passed and Kim is showcasing the exact same work once again at the 30th Anniversary of the Young Korean Artists show currently running at the museum, not as a young artist but in the capacity of the show’s senior participant.

The exhibition is a round-up of the 30 years since the Young Korean Artists Exhibition. The annual exhibition is arguably the museum’s oldest and most representative show, which produced many leading artists who are now acknowledged in and out of Korea.

Among the 327 artists to participate so far, 43 of them, including Joo Tae-seok, Koo Bohn-chang, Noh Sang-kyoon, Suh Do-ho and Lee Wan are back with the original exhibits they displayed in their first “Young Korean Artists” show, as well as some new works. Half the participants can still pass for young while the other half, like Kim, are now in their 50s and 60s.

“It is hard to say that the selected artists are the representative artists of the exhibition. All 327 artists are important but we had to sort them out considering many conditions like the exhibition space. What is certain, though, is that the exhibition can also be seen as a round-up of the last 30 years of Korean art,” said Lee Chu-young, the exhibition curator.

Indeed, the exhibition showcases a wide array of works not just in terms of time but also in genre. Divided into two sections -- the 1980s room and the 1990s to present room -- the exhibition is packed with 150 paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos and installation works. What is interesting is that one can feel the artists’ youthful enthusiasm in every work, no matter how old the artist is now.

The artists featured in the 1980s room often revealed defiance against society in their works.

Kim Yong-ik, for example, reacted against the conventional art world of the time. Rebelling against an art world in which every artist had to have one significant style or “brand” and stick to it, he rolled up all his drawings in a packet, labeled it “To Kumho Museum” and hung it up as an exhibit.

Rhee Ki-bong, on the other hand, expressed the vanity of knowledge by pouring water on a desk where an encyclopedia lays open.

“One summer day, I stepped into my studio and found my books all wet because rain had leaked from the ceiling. A wet book means death; it is impossible to revive it,” said Rhee.

The installation work, titled “Extra-Ordinary-Late-Summer,” is one of the show’s most eye-catching -- and ear-catching -- exhibits.

Younger artists in the 1990s section tend to be more bold and whimsical.

Starting with photographer Koo Bohn-chang’s well-known work in which he sewed together many photos that each feature a body part to make one big body, visitors can find eerie works by several photographers that focus on human body.

Hong Sung-do assembled photos of the human body and titled it “Plastic Surgery,” while Kim Jun tattooed canvases using a variety of materials to make them look like nasty human skin, took pictures of human bodies and colored them and even tried 3-D tattooing by filming a bunch of small and big pink bubbles growing on an arm.

Lee Wan, who is known for his baseballs made of ground chicken and tools made of ground beef, this time displays a skull made of butter.

Do not be surprised to find the work on the floor, because it was not you but the artist who dropped it. It accidently slipped out of Lee’s hands while he was installing it on the day before the show’s opening. Lee said that he decided to leave it like that, damaged, on the floor.

“It was supposed to be put in a glass case, but seeing it on the floor, I had a feeling that that’s where it belonged. The material seemed to have come to life,” Lee said.

The exhibition runs through June 6 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Tickets are 5,000 won for adults and 3,500 won for youths. For more information, call (02) 2188-6000 or visit www.moca.go.kr

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldm.com)

Artist of the year creates an awkward place to rest

Visitors to the National Museum of Contemporary Art will notice the gigantic new piece of art in the museum’s main hall.

Park Ki-won, the National Museum of Contemporary Art’s artist of the year for 2010, covered the entire main hall with vinyl sheets colored in various shades of green oil paint.

The work, titled “Scenery,” is a part of the exhibition “Artist of the Year 2010 Kiwon Park: Who’s Afraid of Museums?”

“It is a small difference but could change the way people think. I intended to induce the situation between reality and unreality. Besides, green is one of my favorite colors,” Park said at a press meeting last week.

Born in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province in 1964, Park started his career as a Western-style painter. He became more acknowledged in the mid-1990s, however, when he switched to installation works that emphasized the exhibition space rather than the work itself.

The National Museum of Contemporary Art started the artist-of-the-year program in 1995. Selected artists so far include Jeon Su-cheon, No Sang-gyun, Jeong Yeon-doo and Suh Yong-sun.

Park’s exhibit, however, leaves something to be desired.
Because the main hall on the first floor is an atrium built through three floors, visitors in the hall can see how the walls on the upper two floors are left bare in a dull gray color. It limits the immersion into the unexpected greenery in the museum.

In the second exhibition room, Park built “Airwalls” with 250 air tubes and also created “Dim,” something like a miniature mountain range with heaps of thin steel wires.

Although wires are supposed to be rather cold and uncomfortable, they appear soft and comfy like hay when piled up under light.
“I think the best exhibition is where visitors can come and rest. That is why I moved this bush-like work indoors,” said Park.

Ironically, though, visitors are only allowed to touch some of the wire heaps.
The exhibition runs through May 30 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Admission is 3,000 won. For more information, call (02) 2188-6000 or visit www.moca.go.kr

By Park Min-young  (claire@heraldm.com)

미술전시도 3D로!

Galleries join 3-D craze

 

Art galleries and museums are joining in the worldwide 3-D craze stirred up by the mega-hit movie "Avatar."

Led by the Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, 17 galleries and museums in Seoul are holding a 3-D exhibition titled "United Museum Collection" together online.

The 3-D exhibition is underway at the website www.artseoul-museum.com. The virtual museum is similar to a real museum in the sense that as it is hard to renovate or expand its rooms due to the complicated nature of special 3-D effects.

The exhibition is divided into five divisions displaying 17 representative works, one from each gallery. The participating galleries include the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul Arts Center, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Kumho Museum, Art Center Nabi and Posco Art Museum.

Clicking on the arrows placed on each side of the screen, visitors can move around the virtual museum. It is furnished with couches, stairs and lights, just like in real museums.

Further information on displays, such as the size or artist profile, is available through clicking on the artwork. The only downside for now is that services are provided in Korean only.

Museum curator Gang Jae-hyun said that the 3-D museum will be continuously upgraded to provide multi-language services and offer works of various genres.

"After this exhibition, special exhibitions that feature certain themes are planned to be held in the latter half of this year. We are preparing to exhibit different kinds of artworks then, including sculptures and installation works," said Gang.

The website, which has been created to establish a network between national, public and private art museums and galleries throughout the country, also showcases collections of each participating gallery.

"It is organized so that more people can enjoy different museums' collections at one stop - online. Currently 90 artworks from 17 museums and galleries are on display, but the number will increase in the future," said Lee Myung-ok, director of the Savina Museum of Contemporary Art.

Online educational art programs will also be offered through the website within the year.

"When opened, children will easily be able to learn more about art at home with their parents," said Gang.

The current exhibition runs through July 31.

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young

기무사터에 생길 국립현대미술관이 궁금하다면!

Get sneak preview of Kimusa exhibits

 

 

Imagine walking in a room with a book in your hand, after which soon images and sounds related to the book splash into the room.

This scenario, reminiscent of a scene one might have seen in an animated film, comes true through Kim Ae-ran's work "The Sublime - The Space of Heteropia" at the exhibition "Beginning of New Era" currently running at the former Defense Security Command complex in central Seoul.

To make it happen, Kim installed special sensors in her neon-flashy books and in a room.

Other than Kim's work, about 60 artists, ranging from veterans to rookies, are showcasing some 300 original and fun exhibits at the show that makes viewers once again ponder the limits of contemporary art.

The National Museum of Contemporary Art, which is hosting of the exhibition, says that these exhibits are previews of what kind of art museum the complex will become in 2012.

It will be the museum's third branch, completing the National Museum of Contemporary Art trio, also including the existing ones in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province and Deoksugung, central Seoul.

Nicknamed Kimusa - an abbreviation of the command's Korean name - the complex has hosted several exhibitions this year, including "Platform in Kimusa 2009."

But museum officials promise this one is completely different.

"If 'Platform' was to brush off Kimusa's past, this exhibition is to promote the forgotten space and show what a fun and exciting place the new museum will be," said museum curator Gi Hye-gyeong.

Once the trio is formed, each will take a different role.

The new museum, as it will probably be fully equipped with the latest equipment, will primarily host exhibitions on new media art combined with modern technologies. The Gwacheon museum will likely focus on its existing collections while the Deoksugung museum, as it takes place inside an old palace, will hold exhibitions that focus on traditional genres of modern and contemporary art.

Will the upcoming museum really be worth waiting for? Yes, if it really turns out to be as creative as its current exhibits.

For instance, installation artist Jeon Su-cheon has reproduced a telephone operating room whose main purpose was allegedly to bug institutions, armies and the media. Hundreds of mixed voices coming out of the operating machine make visitors prick up their ears.

Choi Woo-ram has filled a hallway with hundreds of yellow lamps hanging from its ceiling, making it look like a scene from the Harry Potter movie series.

The spider-formed lamps, called "Pendulum of Secret," are supposed to be "machine organisms" that live on secrets. Choi referred to how the former Kimusa used to be packed with state secrets.

Park Byung-chun created a miniature land in his room with 3,000 crushed ramen noodles and Im Taek created his on visitors' eye level by making a narrow hole on the wall with cotton and salt.

The exhibition runs through Dec. 6 at the former DSC complex in Sogyeok-dong, central Seoul. Admission is free. For more information, visit seoul.moca.go.kr or call (02) 2188-6000.

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young

[아시아 이주작가들의 한 담긴 전시: 아리랑 꽃씨] 리뷰

 

소수자의 설움이 많이 느껴졌던 전시.

 

가장 인상깊었던 것 중의 하나:

 

북한여권을 가지고 있다는 이유만으로

스파이 취급을 당해야했던 유학시절을 들려준 재일교포 김애순작가.

 

참다못해 남한여권으로 바꾸고나니 인간대접을 해주시더라는 -_-

 

본인은 분명 똑같은 사람인데,

사실 종이 조각에 다름 없는 여권이 본인을 정의한다는 사실에 화가나서

두루마리 휴지에 본인의 북한과 남한 여권을 번갈아 찍으셨대요.

하나하나 일일이!

 

그렇게 만든 두루마리 휴지가 백개도 넘는 듯 했어요.

 

영국에서 전시했을 땐 실제로 화장실에 설치해놓고 관람객들이 사용하게 하셨다네요.

 

Korean Diaspora paints against discrimination

Millions of Koreans were displaced to foreign countries since the mid-1860s. The peak was during the Japanese colonization from 1910 to 1945 when many were forced to work overseas. The emigrants and their descendants currently living in China, Japan or central Asia, who number roughly seven million, are what we call today the Korean Diaspora.

The National Museum of Contemporary Art organized the exhibition "Korean Diaspora Artists in Asia" to empathize with them through their artworks.

More than 180 paintings, sculptures, photos and installations by 31 Diaspora Koreans who had to leave the country between the mid-19th century and the mid-20th century are on display.

"We hope viewers can empathize with the artists' sensibilities, which were built through the hardships they underwent while living as outsiders," said curator Park Su-jin.

The exhibition is divided into three sections - Japan, the Commonwealth of Independent States, China - and each section is organized chronologically so that visitors can feel like they are traveling in different countries as well as in time.

Although they are all Koreans, their artworks show completely different tendencies based on the cultures they grew up in.

Artist Cho Yang-gyu's works are the first ones that visitors will meet in the Japan section.

Cho, who was a teacher in Korea, was smuggled into Japan in 1945 in opposition to the establishment of the government. Contrary to his expectations, he lived as an outsider there, doing physical labor. Disappointed, the artist sailed into North Korea in 1960 wanting to fit in, but it is not known what happened to him after that.

"We don't even know how he died. The artist is not even included in the artist dictionary North Korea publishes," the curator said.

The workers with black faces sitting droopingly in front of a warehouse in his painting implies the hard life Cho had lived, not being able to adjust to any society.

The younger generation of contemporary artists living in Japan, also expresses confusion about their identities.

"I have many friends, Korean and Japanese. They all ask me, 'Why do you stay in Japan and suffer as a 'gyopo'?' Yes, I am one of the minorities, but I think everyone, in some sense, is a minority somewhere. It could be for many reasons, like for being a woman, old, or young," said artist Kim Young-suk.

Kim realized this when one of her friends, a Korean resident in the United States who used to work for one of the world's top investment banks, told her about the glass ceiling at her work that she could not break, due to being Asian.

To complain about the discrimination and also to express how much Westerners and Easterners share in common, Kim thought of rice.

She collected rice from all over the world - from Bangladesh to California. By using a magnifying glass, one can take a closer look at each type of rice and also read the tiny explanations Kim wrote about them.

"In the eyes of westerners, all Asians might look the same, but if you look closely, by holding up the magnifying glass, each one of us is unique," Kim said.

Another Korean artist residing in Japan, Kim Ae-sun revealed the mortifying experiences she had while studying in England, on toilet rolls.

It all began when she took her North Korean passport to England. Her action did not have any special reasons - she simply had to get a Korean passport for her first-ever flight, and it happened to be a North Korean one. It was a natural thing for the gyopos living in Japan. But others did not seem to think so.

"Everyone treated me as if I was a spy or something. I had to go through all kinds of inspections. I could not take it anymore, so I changed my passport to a South Korean one. Unbelievably, everyone started to treat me like a normal person," Kim said.

Kim could not understand why a piece of paper, which was nothing more than toilet paper to her, could define her. To prove that she was always the same Kim Ae-sun despite the different passports she had, the artist printed the images of both her passports on toilet rolls.

In a previous exhibition in England, she even installed the rolls in actual toilet stalls so that visitors could use them.

The second section shows paintings by artists living in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The works do not show a significant trend but have diverse tendencies.

Among them, Kim Sergei's "Cage" depicts Korean workers, some dressed in prison uniforms, busily working under surveillance of the local police behind green bars. Taking a step back, viewers will be surprised to see that the green bars form a gloomy face. The painting makes you wonder who is really behind the bars.

Most artists living in China painted portraits, as the country often used them for educational purposes. It is only recently that the Korean artists there started to diversify their paintings to better express their confusion about their identities.

Artist Piao Guangxie's humorous series of "humans floating in a pink bubble" signifies the suffocating modern society where individuals cannot easily find their true identities.

A weird thing about the works showcased in the last two sections: Despite the artists' possible resentment toward the countries, most of the workers that appear in the paintings have smiles on their faces.

"It is because the artists lived in socialist countries. They were educated that labor is always a good and beautiful thing," explained the curator.

The exhibition runs through Sep. 27 at National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Admission is 3,000 won. For more information, call (02) 2188-6000 or visit www.moca.go.kr

(claire@heraldm.com)

By Park Min-young

한국만화100년 보러 과천 국립현대미술관 가기♥

항상 프레스센터앞에서 간담회 버스타고가다가,

이번엔 간담회를 못 가는 바람에 정말 오랜만에 지하철타고 셔틀버스타고 과천으로 갔다.

 

살짝 길치인터라, 헤매면 어쩌지 좀 걱정했는데 왠걸,

정말 친절하게 지하철에 안내판이 도배되어있었다 ㅋㅋ

 

 

여기가 셔틀버스 정류장.

버스는 20분간격으로 운행!

꽤 아기자기한 분위기가 난다. 안에도.

 

 

야외조각장.

저 조각은 노래를 한다. ㅋㅋㅋ

 

처음 들었을 때 이게 뭔 소린가 두리번 두리번 거리다가

저 쇠 아저씨 입이 움직이는 걸 보고 깜짝 놀랐던 기억이 ㅋㅋ

 

 

한국만화100년 전시를 맞아 현대미술관 지붕에 말탄 태권브이가 앉아있다 ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

들어갈 땐 놓쳤는데, 나오면서 발견하곤 어찌나 웃기던지 ㅋㅋㅋ

 

 

 

짜잔, 한국만화 100년.

 

 

 

대강 시대순으로, 그리고 주제별로 정리가 되어있다.

 

 

1909-1930년대 즈음, 배불리 먹는 백인들을 풍자한 만화.

 

 

다음은 해방 이후.

 

 

벽과 전시장을 가득 메운 만화책 표지보다 더 한번에 와닿았던 이 세트.

내가 이 때 살아본 건 아니지만 ㅋㅋ

 

 

직접 살아본 시기로 따지면 이때쯤!!ㅋㅋ

어릴 때 몰래몰래 보던 책들이 전시되어있으니까 완전 재밌었다 ㅋㅋ

이 섹션만 한참 구경한 듯.

 

 

요요코믹스 ㅋ

 

 

심지어 정기구독했던 보물섬!! ㅋㅋ

 

 

낯익은 표지들 ㅋㅋㅋ

 

 

완전 사랑했던 요정핑크♥

바로 저 그림! 몇 번이고 따라 그렸었는데 ㅋㅋ

 

 

 

까치랑 머털도사

 

 

시사만화 코너에 있는, 외국인이 바라본 한국.

"So Obliging"이라니.

그냥 씁쓸하다-_-

 

 

 

고민하는 태권브이ㅋㅋ

"Are you happy?"

 

꺅 ㅋ

사랑에 빠진 태권브이♥ ㅋㅋㅋ

 

 

"그녀들의 세계" 라는 말이 왜 그렇게 웃기던지 ㅋㅋㅋ

 

 

"자그만 소녀에서 남성에게 호기심을 가질 때까지"

 

 

불후의 명작 풀하우스 ㅋ

 

 

여기는 진짜 아이들을 위한 코너.ㅋ

 

 

연대기별로 정리.

 

 

마지막으로 웹툰까지 ㅋㅋ 파페포포랑 마린블루스♥

 

만화를 좋아한다면 한번 가볼 만한 전시 ^-^

[인도의 현대미술] Exhibition gives peek into today's India

2009.4.23

---

A life-size elephant sculpture sits on the floor in an exhibition hall at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Its body is covered with bindis, ornaments in the shape of a water drop that Indian women stick on their foreheads.

This sculpture, named "The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own" by Bharti Kher, ushers in the beginning of the biggest-ever exhibition of Indian arts in Korea, "Contemporary Indian Art: Open Your Third Eye."

"We can't be sure whether the elephant is trying to get up or just settling down," said exhibition curator Kim Nam-in.

Like the elephant's ambiguous posture, the rest of the exhibits reflect the unstable, quickly changing situation in the nation of nearly 1.2 billion people.

Indian culture has been gaining more recognition recently thanks to Bollywood and its booming economy, and most recently, the Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire." In step with the craze, Indian contemporary art is also being considered as a blue chip in the international art community.

"We've been holding surprisingly many exhibitions overseas in the last few years. What is so great about India? Come and visit, you will know," said N.S. Harsha, one of the artists who participated in the exhibition.

The same show was held at Mori Museum in Japan last November with the title "Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art." The content is the same - about 110 pieces by 27 Indian contemporary artists - but the Korean museum changed the arrangements of the exhibits and the exhibition's title.

"The third eye signifies bindi and also a new sense to enjoy art. India is a place where various people, religions and spirits collide and make different images which you will need to look at with your third eye," Kim said.

Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra created a posh room filled with syrup and wine bottles, flowery wall paper and embroidered picture frames and clocks - all probably mass produced in the United States. Young Indian boys smile in the pictures.

"It shows how Indians today live a luxurious life in Canada, America, or Europe, and how they had to sacrifice their younger days for such dreams," explained Kim.

Jitish Kallat expresses the gap between the rich and the poor in India in his work "Death of Distance." Behind a giant one Rupee coin, lenticular plates which show different messages according to the direction of the viewer are hung on the wall. Viewers can read an ad from one side which says "With 1 Rupee, you can call anywhere in India," and a sad story from the other, about an Indian girl who had to starve because she did not have a single Rupee.

Another exhibition on Indian art, more focused on Indian women, is currently running at Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Sunhwa-dong, central Seoul.

The show "Celebrating Women - Amrita Shergil Revisited" exhibits 31 paintings by contemporary Indian women artists. They are their interpretations of a national treasure - "The Three Girls," by Amrita Shergil.

"Shergil was the youngest and the only Asian artist to be an associate of the Grand Salon in 1933, which is one of the prominent art clubs in Paris. She was one of the greatest artists in India, who encouraged a generation of women to paint," explained Satish Sharma, second secretary of the Indian Embassy and the organizer of the exhibition.

"Women have come to occupy a better status and very central positions nowadays. This exhibition can be called a celebration about women," Sharma added.

Viewers can discover different characteristics of each Indian region reflected in the artwork. The skin colors, costumes and expressions of the three girls in the paintings all differ according to the regional base of the artist.

The exhibition "Contemporary Indian Art: Open Your Third Eye" runs through June 7. Admission is 5,000 won. For more information, call (02) 2188-6114 or visit www.moca.go.kr

The exhibition "Celebrating Women - Amrita Shergil Revisited" runs through April 30 at Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Sunhwa-dong, central Seoul. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.kfcenter.or.kr

By Park Min-young

(claire@heraldm.com)

[멀티플 다이얼로그] Kang seeks balance in homage

2009.2.9

---

The "Multiple Dialogue ?" exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon will send your eyes spinning.

TV screens form an 18 meter high tower in the center of the room, and the countless colorful squares glued on the walls that surround the tower add to the confusion.

Artist Kang Ik-Joong installed his work "Samramansang," which means "all creations" in Korean, around the "The More The Better," by prominent video artist Paik Nam-june.

"These are the biggest and most representative installation works ever of the two world famous artists," said Lim Dae-geun, curator of the exhibition.

The current exhibition is a sequel to an exhibition of the same name that the artists held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1994.

However, this exhibition is more like Kang's way of paying homage to late Paik, who was not only his artistic mentor but also someone he most sincerely respected.

Kang told the press on Thursday that he could never forget how considerate and full of insight Paik was.

Before their exhibition at the Whitney Museum, Paik sent an e-mail to the museum saying '"I am very flexible. It is important that Ik-Joong has the better space."

"He was a shaman who sees stars even in daylight," Kang reminisced.

Influenced by Paik, Kang himself also became an acclaimed artist. Even those who do not recognize his name right away would probably have seen the glowing wall filled with moon jar paintings covering the construction site of Gwanghwamun since 2007. It is Kang's art piece named "Mountain-Wind (Dream of Kwang Hwa)."

For "Samramansang," Kang covered the 200 meters long spiral wall around Paik's masterpiece with 60 thousand works and little objects. He used various videos, sounds, media, and objects to create "all creations" possible.

"It occurred to me that Paik Nam-june wanted to make the TV tower look like a rocket," Kang said, pointing to Paik's work.

"As his junior, I felt it was my responsibility to light it up, help it shoot through the sky."

According to Kang, his work is supposed to be a mountain. So naturally, the best way to absorb it is to climb up.

"Viewers can see the 'Samramansang' we encounter while we climb a mountain," Kang explained.

Birds chirp, water flows, and recordings of monks chanting sutra play from tiny moon jars installed on the walls. A yellow moon made from a glow lamp shines through an old wash basin, and lights streak down from a waterfall made of white LED lights.

"As Paik's video tower heads upwards, I tried to even things out by making a waterfall that goes down. And because Paik's videos pulse quickly, I made mine breathe slowly," said Kang.

Kang made efforts to make his work to balance, mix and communicate with Paik's works "like bibimbap," as Paik used to say when referring to his art.

The exhibition runs until Feb. 7, 2010 at National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Admission is free. The museum is closed on Mondays. For more information, call (02) 2188-6114 or visit www.moca.go.kr

By Park Min-young

(claire@heraldm.com)

[아이들이 볼 만한 전시] Art shows for kids

2008.1.28

---

Winter break is too short for eager moms. Along with your children's English and math hagwon plus short ski trips, how about adding something new: participating in art programs or going to exhibitions.

As the importance of developing creative talents has risen, various exhibitions and art programs are taking place during the winter. Here are some that are worth seeing.

"Luci & Orange Museum"

A heartwarming story about an abandoned puppy and a girl, both named Luci can be heard and seen at the exhibition "Luci & Orange Museum" at the Hello Museum in Yeoksam-dong, exclusively for kids.

Twenty paintings, sculptures and photos by artists such as Maggie Taylor and Louise Bourgeois are displayed and used for the curators to tell their story.

The exhibition is based on an 80-minute tour provided by curators who mostly majored in art education or children's education. Children not only see art, but get to discuss it, draw their own pictures and make their own fairy tale books.

Reservations are needed for the tour. There are three levels of the tour regarding the kids' ages - for toddlers from 24 months to 48 months old, for preschoolers from 5 to 7 years old, and for elementary students from 8 to 10 years old.

The museum also holds art education programs, divided into age groups. In a colorful, open space filled with different tools to draw and paint with, children can take their first steps into art.

Parents can wait in a space nearby where they can hear their children and maybe take a peek at the class. A brief explanation of what the kids are doing is provided for parents while the children attend the class.

Experiencing and playing with art at a young age not only helps the kids' artistic talents grow but also helps them lose their shyness and become more outgoing.

"There was a kid who always cried so hard, not wanting to be separated with his mother. But after attending the class several times, he stopped crying and even started to speak in front of the class," said exhibition curator Lee Jin-hee.

"Big art museums filled with adults could be scary for kids. But here, they can talk and share their feelings with the friends their age in a cozier ambience, so it eventually helps them grow in confidence."

The exhibition runs through Feb. 28 at Hello Museum in Yeoksam-dong, southern Seoul. Fee for the tour is 22,000 won for kids and 2,000 won for the parent. It is closed on Mondays. For more information, call (02) 3217-4222 or visit www.hellomuseum.com.

"Kids Motor Show"

If your kids are crazy about cars, "Kids Motor Show" at COEX in Samsung-dong is just the place for them.

Kids can see the insides of real cars and learn the basic science of cars by watching and performing various experiments.

Engines roar and gas-filled cylinders fire. A rough wind blows in the wind tunnel where kids can experience the upward force and resisting power.

In other sections, children can learn the safety rules for crossing the streets, or draw their imaginative future cars.

The highlight of the show would no doubt be driving a racing kart. A racing track for kids is prepared at the exhibition. If you have collected all the stamps they give out at each learning section, you get to ride the car three times.

"Through various experiments and racing kart experiences, children will naturally learn the science hidden within the cars, and the importance of the safety rules," said curator Cho Bo-ram.

Do not forget to take home a "kids driver's license" with your name on, on the way out.

The exhibition runs through March 1 at Jangbogo Hall at COEX in Samsung-dong, southern Seoul. Tickets are 15,000 won. Admission is free for babies 36 months old and younger. For more information, call (02) 501-1670 or visit www.kidsmotor.com

"Mirror, Mirror on the Wall"

The National Museum of Contemporary art offers the exhibition "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" at its Children's Gallery. Seventy figure paintings by prominent artists such as Kwon Ki-soo and Kim Seon-doo are exhibited.

It is an exhibition to help the children understand figure paintings, one of art's most important genres.

To help them better understand the paintings, each title is connected to a familiar phrase in a fairy tale, such as "Mirror, mirror on the wall," in Snow White.

The exhibition is divided into three parts, regarding the ages of the visitors.

In the first section, paintings of children and animals are showcased for kids from 3 to 6 years old. Kids play with moving installations and feel the materials used in the works.

The second part is for kids that age from 7-10. Paintings of family and neighbors are displayed.

For kids that are 11-13, paintings with teenagers going through puberty or more complex pictures of the society members are exhibited.

A guided tour is available every day from 11:30 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.

The program runs until November at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, in Gyeonggi province, south of Seoul. Admissions are free, but the expo is closed on Mondays. For reservations, call (02) 2188-6069.

By Park Min-young

(claire@heraldm.com)