ART-PRESENTATION: Artspectrum 2016
ARTSPECTRUM, a biennial exhibition series of Samsung Museum of Art for emerging Korean artists, opens this spring for the sixth time. The Museum has invited outside curators and art critics to recommend participating artists along with the Leeum curators in order to reflect broader perspective. Also the ARTSPECTRUM Award, is given to one participating artist/team, to further encourage an artist with great potential.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Leeum-Samsung Museum of Art Archive
The artists selected for this year’s exhibition use a variety of media including painting, photography, video and installation, and explore a broad spectrum of subjects ranging from personal narrative to the modern history of Korea. Sound has been a primary medium for Young Eun Kim in some of her previous works that stand out. For the work created for this exhibition, Kim focuses on one particular characteristic of sound, which is its immateriality. She attempts to materialize sound by applying units used to measure concrete material, namely length, height and width Kelvin Kyung Kun Park in his new work titled, “Army: 600,000 Portraits”, he explores the relationship between individual and collective through military service, a rite of passage that most Korean men share. He captures the elements of performance, emphasis on the body and sexual tension specific to the military in an aloof yet observant gaze. The film leads one to consider the so-called “army culture” and the extent of its influence on Korean society in general. Jungki Beak attempts to close the gap between art and science and science and mysticism. By adding a specific historical context, Beak further develops the theme of his “Pray for Rain” projects where he likens the divided society as an arid land that needs to become wet. Exhibited alongside the photographs of Dong-il An is a large-scale painting titled “Our Land of Korea”, which contains iconic images culled from selected commemorative stamps issued around the same Korean history. Here, An effectively paints a portrait of an era by aggregating things that the era commemorated. Optical Race (Hyungjae Kim and Jaehyun Bahk), in their new work for the exhibition, present possible combinations of future household assets created by marriage of the echo boom generation. Jane Jin Kaisen in her eight-channel video that deals with the Jeju April Third Uprising, she explores different ways silenced traumas resurface. She sees traces of repressed memories in the nature of Jeju, in the gentle chant of a shaman comforting the lost souls, and the footsteps of activists who seek to uncover the truth of the event, and films them with a calm gaze.
Info: Leeum-Samsung Museum of Art, 60-16, Itaewon-ro, 55-gil, Seoul, Duration: 12/5-7/8/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:30-18:00, http://leeum.samsungfoundation.org
