When people think
about Hanbok, a traditional Korean outfit, they have certain expectations.
Hyunjung Kim deliberately defies those expectations by painting a picture that
shows Hanbok in an unstressed everyday-life manner. Responsible for an
ironically even lovelier look is probably the designer's own persona, a modern
Korean woman who enjoys shopping and can't live without her phone. Eloquence
met the young, witty artist for an insightful chat.
Hanbok elements
play a significant role in your work. How did that come about?
The most important function of the
hanbok is to highlight 'the impact of common expectations'. The series Feign
started with my personal thoughts about false assumptions and people who act
differently on the inside and the outside, and I'm slowly developing that into
a more personal confession and a general statement undermining stereotypes. The
works depict delicate garments that are usually worn to festive occasions, in
rather atypical, often humorous situations, as well as in combination with
modern items that take away the entitlement to judge. These contrasts are, of
course, present in other outfits, but I really do pattern and accessories of
the Korean hanbok. Those unique attributes are more than enough to spark my
expressiveness as an artist.
Your paintings
often depict women’s
two-sideness. Is there something being ‘feigned’ there?
If you look
up the word ‘feign’ it will say something like, ‘acting shy on
the outside, but really being deceptive.’ But, as you
can see in your question, most people will naturally associate the word ‘feign’ with the picture of a woman, even
though it is, of course free of gender. While I do agree that it is an
expression that in our society suits a woman better than a man, I don’t think that it is an exclusively female characteristic. I think
that it is a rather common social urge of people to gain confirmation from one
another and hide personal weaknesses that result in ‘discordance;.
Sometimes it appears almost instinctively, but I also believe that people will
sacrifice part of their own selves, their own identities for social
convenience. While I planned Feign as an expression of dissatisfaction with
pretentious people and a desire for pictorial expression, it has now become a
psychological and philosophical topic for me.
The pieces that
show nude body parts underneath the hanbok are particularly memorable. They
could be interpreted sexually.
I often
think that women have to hide their inherent desires and true nature more than
men. As mentioned before, I think that pretention is more connected to women
and frankly, I think that it is reality. There’s a part of me that chose to draw women because I’ve experienced such things first-hand. However, the nudity is there
to express that people wear clothes only to adorn themselves, to show that they
have a clean core. It’s a very important element. The
viewer can see through the half transparent textile the essence of the person,
and the silhouettes to indicate the character’s
possibility to reach that core. Seen from the ‘female’s essential core’ in my paintings, could one
really think I was sending a sexual message?
The Feign series is
fairly well known, but what other works have you previously done?
The Feign
series can be seen entirely as a study of my own personality. Before that I was
preparing for that process of searching. I,E, my own version of The Thinker.
When I was in that self-defining of elements of Korean beauty make me nod along
to his insightful explanations. I would like to take our art, our hanboks and
hanji (Korean traditional paper) and present their subtle beauty proudly all
over the world. And Takashi Murakmi is an artist whose works have taught me
that art can coexist with capitalistic industrialization and still be a part of
our everyday lives. One of my dream is to see art being as much a part of
everybody’s life as music, to
see it being a base for joy that anybody can easily pick up. He showed me that
art can become a way to nestle on industrialized territory.
It seems as if one
can see your own lifestyle depicted in your works. What kind of person are you?
That’s something I would
completely leave up to the spectator. I actually like shopping and very lively
things, but on the other hand I enjoy being by myself and like any other artist
I am a rather emotional person This might be the right time to unburden
myself – as a girl who likes lively things – from something I’d like to say about the
expression ‘drawing (spoiled) girl.’ I think that it is denigrating and suppressing women’s hopes of a bright and vivid life. Everybody has those desires, not
just women. I would like to see more confidence and acceptance of people’s tastes and preferences. That’s one of the
things I realized about myself during my working process.
What kind of artist
would like to be come?
I would like
to be an artist who scratches people where it itches. I usually answer this
question with, ‘artists
are people who express other people’ desires’. Artists are more sensitive and emotionally charged than other
people. They are able to express what others might not be able to understand in
the first place or issues they can identify with but don’t know how to let out. Artists are professional. I try to be a
sensitive, worldly person, interactive and keen on life.
Copyright ⓒ 2013 By 김현정 All pictures cannot be copied without permission
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