Plastic art that cuts through reality
- Source: Global Times
- [09:53 August 12 2010]
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For the Worshipers by Noh Sang Kyoon. Photo: Courtesy of Minsheng Art Museum
By Huang Xi
One of the big businesses in South Korea is plastic surgery and certainly this has created a large number of good-looking girls and boys for the country and its neighboring nations. Now taking plastic to a new level is Plastic Garden, a Korean contemporary art exhibition which opened at the Minsheng Art Museum.
This exhibition features 64 paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos and installations by 16 artists. Not so much a formal display of art this is more like a big party celebrating the achievements of these Korean artists over the past two decades.
The festive atmosphere is clear in Choi Jeong Hwa's Life, Life at the entrance of the museum. It consists of a wall covered with fluorescent colored papers, alongside purple and red benches with shimmering dust and colorful long balloons spiraling in an outdoor transparent showroom. A large silver bead curtain is suspended from the ceiling.
Choi often chooses vulgar and cheap subjects to illustrate his understanding of life. Most of the materials were bought in Yiwu, in Zhejiang Province, a city famous for trading cheap novelties. With Choi's creativity, these cheap objects develop a new life and become filled with vigor.
Choi is better known for his public art, especially his "flowers." He believes "public art should be enjoyable for anyone outside a museum." There is no target audience and visitors from any age group or part of society can enjoy it as they want to.
One of his famous "flowers" can be found in Shanghai on Yan'an Road West - a 16-meter sculpture of more than 180 2-meter artificial flowers.
But Choi's Life, Life is the only truly festive exhibit in this exhibition. The other works, more or less, involve themes of disappointment or gloomy colors and moods.
According to Yun Chea Gab, the curator, the purpose of the exhibition is not to "show off the accomplishments made by Korean artists and show that are at the same level as their European counterparts" but to present the concerns deep in their hearts.
"It is not an exhibition aimed at exporting the works but to expose the lot of Korean society. I want to show the changes in Korean society to Chinese visitors, and this motivated me to stage this exhibition," Yun said.
"Society has become more money-oriented since the 1990s, and the financial crisis in 1997 increased people's desire for money. Artists have lost their faith and enthusiasm, and their creativity lacks power," he continued.
This concept of "loss" can be found in Bae Young Whan's work Insomnia 2010. The artist uses wine-bottle fragments, abandoned iron and aluminium wire and LED lights to produce a weird, menacing chandelier that might, in another artist's hands, have appeared splendid and luxurious.
The piece reflects some of the important social phenomena in the history of Korea and conveys Bae's anxiety and doubts about modern society. But he believes his works have nothing to do with politics and are merely pictures of daily life and feelings.
