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Exhibition explores artists' life of balancing art, livelihood

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'Language of Ocean' (2018) by Lee Tae-kang / Courtesy of Suwon Museum of Art
'Language of Ocean' (2018) by Lee Tae-kang / Courtesy of Suwon Museum of Art

By Park Han-sol

Striking a balance between art and livelihood is a lingering issue for people seeking a career in the arts until they establish a solid reputation.

The Suwon Museum of Art (SUMA) exhibition "The Right Way to Be Right Now" at Art Space Gwanggyo features the works of five creators born in the 1980s, who have pondered what it means to live as an artist for nearly a decade and now stand at a critical crossroads in their careers, along with the visual archives of their livelihoods.

The exhibition's Korean title "Be Jeongsang" contains multiple layers of meanings that give viewers a glimpse into the drifting realities of young present-day artists ― "Be" can mean "to be" in English or "not" as a Chinese character, while "jeongsang" can be the Korean word for "top" or "normal." Hence, when combined, it can either represent "artists who want 'to be' at the top but who are currently 'not'" or "artists who must grapple with the 'not' normal system that forces them to take up second jobs to finance their passion."

'Flyers' (2013) by Seo Yu-jin / Courtesy of Suwon Museum of Art
'Flyers' (2013) by Seo Yu-jin / Courtesy of Suwon Museum of Art

Some of the featured creators have directly incorporated their means of livelihood into their displayed artwork.

Kim Yang-woo makes a stark contrast between her day job and nights spent on artistic contemplation and creation. The brightly lit "Cargo Transportation Office Work" and "Online Shopping Mall Marketing Work" (2021) are audiovisual records of her office part-time job. A mix of busy telephone dialogues, tapping sounds of computer mice and keyboards and Microsoft Excel running on the computer screen portrays life as a cog in the commercial machine.

Meanwhile, "67.32km" (2019) and "20190227-20210128" (2019-2021) are works born at night. Kim covers the distance of 67.32km from Seoul to Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, in her daily commute, and has compiled multiple video shots of her journey back home into the piece. Through such juxtaposition of day and night, she explores the double life that many artists are compelled to lead.

For Seo Yu-jin, her visual archives of livelihood contain the seemingly endless rows of flyers on the entire wall advertising her arts and crafts class, titled "Flyers," as well as a set of handmade stools that she made and sold, titled "Stool." Within the same space, short clips are played on loop of her preparing for the crafting class with sorghum straw, clay and origami paper. The videos capture her concern that such uniform education can wear down one's artistic creativity but at the same time, become a new artwork itself.

Lee Tae-kang, who materializes poetic language and stories into sculptures, tells the fantastic adventure of one extraordinary man in his new series "Extraordinary Clothes" (2021). The fairy tale-like space, created along with soft lighting, colorful and abstract sculptures of clouds and ocean, as well as music, is juxtaposed with archival records that capture the traces of his job as a drawing class instructor and illustrator that he had to take for a living. By displaying them side by side, Lee suggests that these secondary jobs have served as the basis of his life as well as the driving force to construct his own artistic worldview.

'Division' (2011) by Jeong Deok-hyeon / Courtesy of Suwon Museum of Art
'Division' (2011) by Jeong Deok-hyeon / Courtesy of Suwon Museum of Art

Other artists have showcased moments of creative processes required for the birth of an artwork through everyday objects alongside the finished version.

Jeong Deok-hyeon, who has continued to portray the message of human labor being consumed and thrown away in the commercial factory setting, has depicted metal bolts, bricks, computers and cigarettes ― objects symbolizing the struggles Jeong has had to endure as he has lived, labored and worked as an artist ― in his "Drifting Diary" (2021).

These everyday objects occupy not only the space within the artwork but also the physical space of the exhibition as they are strewn about in front of each of his canvases. As pencils, beer, instant noodles, gloves and coffee beans are brought forward to viewers along with the finished work, the artist puts the reality of his creative efforts on public display.

For an artist, it often becomes necessary to constantly be on the move. Kwon Hye-kyoung turns the records of her series on migration into an installation. On a white wall, there are seven addresses, both overseas and domestic, that she has occupied in the past. On the other side of the wall, there is a large wooden cargo crate, whose surface is inscribed with the address of the new residency that she will exhibit at in the future. Through such work she depicts the life of an artist in motion ― physically, if one is partaking in residency programs, and figuratively, when one embarks on a journey to artistically explore new concepts and topics.

The exhibition will run until June 6.
Park Han-sol hansolp@koreatimes.co.kr


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