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| Park Yoo-ah's solo exhibition 'Candid Essence: 51 Lives' is being held at the Nam-Seoul Museum of Art in southern Seoul / Courtesy of Seoul Museum of Art |
By Kwon Mee-yoo
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| '73/74 SDN' (2020) in Park Yoo-ah's 'Ubermensch' series / Courtesy of the artist and Seoul Museum of Art |
Nam-Seoul Museum of Art is located in the former Belgian Consulate building that was originally built in Hoehyeon-dong near Deoksu Palace back in 1905. After going through changes of ownership, the building was dismantled and relocated to its current location near Sadang Station on Seoul Metro Lines 2 and 4 in southern Seoul in 1983.
"The history of this building resonates with Park's adoptee portrait project as both have the experience of being migrated by others," the exhibit's curator Kim Hye-jin said.
The title Candid Essence comes from Cho Hae-jin's 2019 novel "Simple Truth," which revolves around Korean adoptees and a woman in a military town, and the title of the 10th Film Festival for Women's Rights.
"This phrase reflects the artist's perspective on the adoptees as well as their Ubermensch-like will to overcome their prescribed conditions with optimism," Kim said.
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| '70/78 US' (2019) in Park Yoo-ah's 'Ubermensch' series / Courtesy of the artist and Seoul Museum of Art |
"I came across (the documentary) by chance. The first thing that I noticed when I first visited the site was the 100 faces lined up as rows of thumbnails. These faces were neither Korean nor Western, but ones that evaded the grasp of existing language. I believed that they could only be described through art," Park said in an email interview with The Korea Times.
"I watched all 100 interviews over the course of several days. Every time I finished watching one, I found myself regarding the life that that person had experienced with great respect and reverence. I became curious about how they would manifest as images through the filter called Yooah Park."
"Ubermensch," the series title, is a concept developed by German philosopher Nietzsche and translates to "over man" or "superman."
"I understood Nietzsche's concept of the Ubermensch as an overcoming of the self through one's ceaseless effort to fortify and improve oneself from within," Park said.
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| '77/78 FRNC' (2020) in Park Yoo-ah's 'Ubermensch' series / Courtesy of the artist and Seoul Museum of Art |
"I thought it would be interesting to see videos that had gone through the filter of someone who was similarly situated, director Glenn, also an adoptee himself, go through another filter of the artist Yooah Park," she said.
Forty-seven portraits of the 50 Park painted are on view at the Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, after getting the adoptees' permission. The 51 lives in the title of the exhibit refers to the 50 lives Park studied and painted and her own life as an immigrant mother.
"I saw myself in their process of discovering and establishing their identities, through the conflict between their learned culture and culture inscribed in their DNA," she said.
The adoptees in the portraits remain anonymous, only classified by their year of birth, adopted and adoptive country as in Morey's documentary.
"I thought it was a great way to eliminate any meanings that may be associated with particular names," the artist said.
The portraits are hung in the consulate-turned-museum building's halls, some over the former mantelpieces and along with the building's original plaster structures found in the museum's attic.
"I considered the building a part of the work. I made a proactive attempt to incorporate the structure into the creation process. I hope that the paintings and the structure's architectural elements together appear like a form of installation work," Park explained.
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| Two portraits from Park Yoo-ah's solo exhibition 'Candid Essence: 51 Lives' at the Nam-Seoul Museum of Art in southern Seoul / Courtesy of Seoul Museum of Art |
Born in 1961, Park studied Oriental painting at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and moved to the U.S. to attend Harvard University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and Columbia University Graduate School of Arts.
Park still uses Oriental painting techniques as well as other mediums such as ceramics, metal and textiles. For "Ubermensch," Park used bunchae pigment on jangji (Korean paper).
"When painting with bunchae pigment on traditional Korean paper, the paper needs to be primed with multiple layers of agyo (glue). The actual process of painting also requires the painter to create colors by layering pigment on top of pigment multiple times. I believed that this difficult process was appropriate for portraiture," Park said.
"I combined traditional Korean techniques with Western techniques such as rules of perspective, because I didn't feel the need to stick to just one method. The techniques I use are merely tools for my work. I choose the tools that are best suited for each situation."
Each portrait is individualized as Park forayed into their personal histories as inscribed onto their faces.
"In portraits that only show a person's face, their skin color is inevitably the most recognizable element of the work. I don't rely on analytical interpretations of each face but rather go with what I feel. I paint soon after watching an interview, before that feeling fades," she said.
Park plans to paint 88 faces of the 100 interviewees, excluding the 12 who did not want to be painted.
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| Artist Park Yoo-ah poses next to 'Ressentiment-Hyo' (2012) on display at her solo exhibition 'Candid Essence: 51 Lives' at Nam-Seoul Museum of Art in southern Seoul. Courtesy of Seoul Museum of Art |
On the second floor are more paintings from the "Ubermensch" series as well as earlier works that help understand Park's background and artistic style.
Park's father is the late POSCO founder and former Prime Minister Park Tae-joon and Park herself is the ex-wife of lawyer and politician Koh Seung-duk.
For this exhibition, the artist re-created her 2012 work "Ressentiment-Hyo," which announced her departure from traditional values of family and filial duty. She tore raw meat and shattered mirrors at a dinner table setting during a performance back then, deconstructing and reevaluating family values.
"I think I feel more at peace with the work. It feels similar to trying all I can to avoid a sudden rainfall, but after getting completely soaked, giving up, accepting the situation, and then becoming more comfortable or even enjoying it," Park said on the re-creation of the work after eight years.
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| Park Yoo-ah's 'Ressentiment-Hyo' (2012) / Courtesy of Seoul Museum of Art |
The "Music Box" (2013) series are faceless portraits of couples, reflecting upon the artist's past as well as generation notions on relationships. Some of the adoptee portraits are displayed opposite the faceless portraits.
"When we read a novel or watch a movie or TV show, we identify with something in the work. After watching all the interviews on the Side by Side site, I found myself looking at them through a mother's eyes. In the Music Box series, I painted the faces white to create that point of identification. I was curious who would identify with whom when these two works faced each other."
The exhibit runs through April 11.
