Interview with Segye Times | 세계일보 인터뷰

As in this opening event, officially displaying more traditional aesthetics could be a source of admirable ideas by artists and people engaged in the field of visual culture, he said.

“I’ve often heard that flowers in my paintings look like cherry blossoms, my character Dongguri has a Japanese-style name (Its pronunciation is by chance similar to that of the Japanese word, ‘どんぐり’ meaning ‘acorn’) or my red, golden (copper) colors are similar to a Chinese style. To my mind, however, these are elements are often discovered in our tradition. I also recently heard that my wave patterns bear a resemblance with those of ukiyo-e. But, this pattern is often found in paintings of the sun and moon and paintings by Jeong Seon.”

In fact, there are a lot of traditional elements we find in our everyday life but we tend to think have come from Japan or China. That’s mainly because such traditional factors have not been sufficiently addressed by the academic world or the press.

“As Korea has become advanced economically, its design has evolved and demand for traditional elements has risen. I think this is positive. The opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympics was carried out quite exquisitely on a shoestring budget thanks to Korea’s superb design capability combined with its effort to rediscover tradition. I believe the potential of Korean culture made it possible.”

Experts consider the ancient mythology pertaining to the man-faced bird was widespread in Northeast Asia in that its images were found in unearthed articles from ancient Silla and Baekje tombs and a variety of human-faced birds were depicted in the Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shan Hai Jing, 山海經), the first collection of Chinese myths.

“Some responded that my works look very similar to Japanese animation, which indicates that Japan has managed to bring traditional elements to even popular culture. We must realize that traditional factors can be possessed by those who inherit them. We desperately need to have a cast of mind that sees the traditions in our surroundings as enriched cultural resources.”

His character Dongguri has eyes like two ink dots, bristled up hair that resembles ink lines, and a big grinning mouth. People see it as a pop character.

“This is an inheritance of the tradition of portraying figures in Joseon landscape painting. Extremely pared down, this character is portrayed by dotting its eyes, nose, and mouth in ink and creating its round body with brush lines.”

He resolutely declines to define his work as Korean pop art. If his works are defined merely as part of pop art, they are less unappealing to the global art scene , thus, what matters is differentiation. The majority opinion of the art world is that we need some keywords to define an army of artists such as Kwon Ki-soo, Lee Se-hyun, Kim Kira, Hong Kyung-taek, Hong Ji-yoon, and Jung Jae-ho who involve tradition in their contemporary exploration and a group of artists who engage in digital work.

“It is a time in which criticism and curation are desperately needed. Although text in the global art scene is considered less important, active criticism is still required in Korea where the base of modern and contemporary art is not solid.”

He hopes his art is criticized and interpreted by not only art critics but also by experts from diverse fields including music and literature. He plans to publish a collection of critical essays on his art along with articles that speak ill of his works from the perspective of contemporary art. If necessary, he is ready to accept other artists’ comments.

A tropical plant called tropic snow was growing thick in the office space of his studio I visited last Sunday. The green leaves featured in his recent paintings are also tropic snow leaves.

“I initially wanted to paint plantains like the ones depicted in Joseon paintings but I don’t know what they look like as I haven’t cultivated them. Instead, I painted tropic snow.”

He depicts liberal gestures so as to take a step forward in a way that is predicated upon tradition. He says he tries to have refreshments in an atmosphere like that of a resort.

편완식 미술전문기자 wansik@segye.com