Sohl Lee's "Realism for Democracy in the Global Cold War: South Korea's Minjung Art" was written ... more Sohl Lee's "Realism for Democracy in the Global Cold War: South Korea's Minjung Art" was written as part of the exhibition catalogue From Vietnam to Berlin, held at the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju in 2018. It charts the concept of "realism" as manifested in two related but distinct concepts of "hyonsil (reality)" and "hyonjang (site)" during the 1980s.
Sohl Lee's "Yatoo and the Politics of Nature: What Ecological Thinking Discloses of Contemporary ... more Sohl Lee's "Yatoo and the Politics of Nature: What Ecological Thinking Discloses of Contemporary South Korean Art" was published in a special issue "Contemporary Art and Ecology in East Asia" for Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Vol. 3 Iss. 3) in 2017.
For three decades, South Korean society has experienced a dramatic political paradigm shift from ... more For three decades, South Korean society has experienced a dramatic political paradigm shift from an authoritarian regime to a democratic polity. During this time, art was a productive site of social imagination, giving tangible form to the seemingly universal notions of democratic participation, public culture and civil society. Being Political Popular: South Korean Art at the Intersection of Popular Culture and Democracy, 1980-2010, showcases 17 artists and collectives who investigate the questions of politics, collectivity and social engagement through a range of mediums, including comics, painting, woodblock print, collage, photography, installation, performance and video. Specifically, the exhibition situates art within South Korean popular culture - a discourse that came to maturity alongside the country's democratization - now touted as the Korean Wave (hallyu) due to its status as a global cultural phenomenon. The artworks' interaction with popular culture is clearly demonstrated here - on occasion art both drove and formulated the very cultural ethos of the time. While complicating the division between political resistance and popular entertainment, Being Political Popular seeks to recuperate the aesthetics of humor, satire and pleasure latent in examples of the most radical Korean political art.
Artists include: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Dong-won, Labor News Collective, Park Jae-dong, Kim Min-gi, Hong Sung-dam, Hein-kuhn Oh, Minouk Lim, mixrice, siren eunyoung jung, listen to the city, Chan-kyong Park, Seung Woo Back, Park Bul-dong, Nam Gung Ho Seok, Sangdon Kim, and Minari & Hack.
Many artworks from recent South Korean history are located in the nebulous but fertile contact zo... more Many artworks from recent South Korean history are located in the nebulous but fertile contact zone between public/popular culture and democracy movements. Being Political Popular attempts a thematically focused and historically interventionist inquiry into the current status of South Korean contemporary art, exploring the work of 17 artists and art collectives.
Being Political Popular documents the complex lines of thinking that scholars such as Chang-nam Kim, Namhee Lee, and Wan-kyung Sung have nurtured on the topics of the popular music and resistant youth culture of the 1970s, the politics of minjung subjectivity during the 1980s democracy movement, and the 1980s minjung art movement. The book also includes artists' writings and manifestos by Minouk Lim, mixrice, Hein-kuhn Oh, and Sangdom Kim--primary materials that provide the reader with a closer look at their art-making. It serves as a reader's gateway to the recent history of South Korean visual arts and public culture, marking the beginning of a more nuanced and multifaceted investigation of the South Korean aesthetics of politics. (From University of Washington Press website)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sohl Lee, "Preface" Sohl Lee, "Introduction: Between Minjung and Taejung" (p.10-17) Sohl Lee, "Sites of Resistant Collectivity: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Dong-won, Labor News Collective, Park Jae-dong (p.18-39) Sohl Lee, "Reenacting History: Kim Min-gi, Hong Sung-dam, Hein-kuhn Oh (p.40-63) Hein-kuhn Oh "Making the Gwangju Story" (1995) (p.62-3) Sohl Lee, "Between One and Many: siren eun young jung, mixrice, Minouk Lim" (p.64-103) Mixrice, "Conversations for Return" (2006) (p.94-5) Minouk Lim, "A Bartleby within Myself: S.O.S.--Adoptive Dissensus" (2009) (p.102-3) Sohl Lee, "Seoul Tour / Pyongyang Express: Chan-kyong Park, Seung Woo Back, listen to the city" (p.104-127) Sohl Lee, "The Past is the Future: Park Bul-dong, Nam Gung Ho Seok" (p.128-139) Sohl Lee, "Play to Fly: Sangdon Kim, Minari and Hack" (p.140-153) Sangdon Kim, "Discoplan: A Workshop to Regenerate the Former Camp Nimble Site" (p.148-9) Sohl Lee, "A Letter to the Future of Korean Art" (p.154-7)
Minouk Lim, "The (Im)Possibility of Art as Life" (p.158-163)
Namhee Lee, "Minjung, History, and the Crisis of Historical Subjectivity" (p.164-177)
Chang-nam Kim, "Kim Min-gi and the 1970s South Korean Youth Culture" (p. 178-187)
Wan-kyung Sung, "The Rise and Fall of Minjung Art" (p.188-202)
Sohl Lee's "Realism for Democracy in the Global Cold War: South Korea's Minjung Art" was written ... more Sohl Lee's "Realism for Democracy in the Global Cold War: South Korea's Minjung Art" was written as part of the exhibition catalogue From Vietnam to Berlin, held at the Asia Culture Center in Gwangju in 2018. It charts the concept of "realism" as manifested in two related but distinct concepts of "hyonsil (reality)" and "hyonjang (site)" during the 1980s.
Sohl Lee's "Yatoo and the Politics of Nature: What Ecological Thinking Discloses of Contemporary ... more Sohl Lee's "Yatoo and the Politics of Nature: What Ecological Thinking Discloses of Contemporary South Korean Art" was published in a special issue "Contemporary Art and Ecology in East Asia" for Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art (Vol. 3 Iss. 3) in 2017.
For three decades, South Korean society has experienced a dramatic political paradigm shift from ... more For three decades, South Korean society has experienced a dramatic political paradigm shift from an authoritarian regime to a democratic polity. During this time, art was a productive site of social imagination, giving tangible form to the seemingly universal notions of democratic participation, public culture and civil society. Being Political Popular: South Korean Art at the Intersection of Popular Culture and Democracy, 1980-2010, showcases 17 artists and collectives who investigate the questions of politics, collectivity and social engagement through a range of mediums, including comics, painting, woodblock print, collage, photography, installation, performance and video. Specifically, the exhibition situates art within South Korean popular culture - a discourse that came to maturity alongside the country's democratization - now touted as the Korean Wave (hallyu) due to its status as a global cultural phenomenon. The artworks' interaction with popular culture is clearly demonstrated here - on occasion art both drove and formulated the very cultural ethos of the time. While complicating the division between political resistance and popular entertainment, Being Political Popular seeks to recuperate the aesthetics of humor, satire and pleasure latent in examples of the most radical Korean political art.
Artists include: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Dong-won, Labor News Collective, Park Jae-dong, Kim Min-gi, Hong Sung-dam, Hein-kuhn Oh, Minouk Lim, mixrice, siren eunyoung jung, listen to the city, Chan-kyong Park, Seung Woo Back, Park Bul-dong, Nam Gung Ho Seok, Sangdon Kim, and Minari & Hack.
Many artworks from recent South Korean history are located in the nebulous but fertile contact zo... more Many artworks from recent South Korean history are located in the nebulous but fertile contact zone between public/popular culture and democracy movements. Being Political Popular attempts a thematically focused and historically interventionist inquiry into the current status of South Korean contemporary art, exploring the work of 17 artists and art collectives.
Being Political Popular documents the complex lines of thinking that scholars such as Chang-nam Kim, Namhee Lee, and Wan-kyung Sung have nurtured on the topics of the popular music and resistant youth culture of the 1970s, the politics of minjung subjectivity during the 1980s democracy movement, and the 1980s minjung art movement. The book also includes artists' writings and manifestos by Minouk Lim, mixrice, Hein-kuhn Oh, and Sangdom Kim--primary materials that provide the reader with a closer look at their art-making. It serves as a reader's gateway to the recent history of South Korean visual arts and public culture, marking the beginning of a more nuanced and multifaceted investigation of the South Korean aesthetics of politics. (From University of Washington Press website)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sohl Lee, "Preface" Sohl Lee, "Introduction: Between Minjung and Taejung" (p.10-17) Sohl Lee, "Sites of Resistant Collectivity: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Dong-won, Labor News Collective, Park Jae-dong (p.18-39) Sohl Lee, "Reenacting History: Kim Min-gi, Hong Sung-dam, Hein-kuhn Oh (p.40-63) Hein-kuhn Oh "Making the Gwangju Story" (1995) (p.62-3) Sohl Lee, "Between One and Many: siren eun young jung, mixrice, Minouk Lim" (p.64-103) Mixrice, "Conversations for Return" (2006) (p.94-5) Minouk Lim, "A Bartleby within Myself: S.O.S.--Adoptive Dissensus" (2009) (p.102-3) Sohl Lee, "Seoul Tour / Pyongyang Express: Chan-kyong Park, Seung Woo Back, listen to the city" (p.104-127) Sohl Lee, "The Past is the Future: Park Bul-dong, Nam Gung Ho Seok" (p.128-139) Sohl Lee, "Play to Fly: Sangdon Kim, Minari and Hack" (p.140-153) Sangdon Kim, "Discoplan: A Workshop to Regenerate the Former Camp Nimble Site" (p.148-9) Sohl Lee, "A Letter to the Future of Korean Art" (p.154-7)
Minouk Lim, "The (Im)Possibility of Art as Life" (p.158-163)
Namhee Lee, "Minjung, History, and the Crisis of Historical Subjectivity" (p.164-177)
Chang-nam Kim, "Kim Min-gi and the 1970s South Korean Youth Culture" (p. 178-187)
Wan-kyung Sung, "The Rise and Fall of Minjung Art" (p.188-202)
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Artists include: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Dong-won, Labor News Collective, Park Jae-dong, Kim Min-gi, Hong Sung-dam, Hein-kuhn Oh, Minouk Lim, mixrice, siren eunyoung jung, listen to the city, Chan-kyong Park, Seung Woo Back, Park Bul-dong, Nam Gung Ho Seok, Sangdon Kim, and Minari & Hack.
Being Political Popular documents the complex lines of thinking that scholars such as Chang-nam Kim, Namhee Lee, and Wan-kyung Sung have nurtured on the topics of the popular music and resistant youth culture of the 1970s, the politics of minjung subjectivity during the 1980s democracy movement, and the 1980s minjung art movement. The book also includes artists' writings and manifestos by Minouk Lim, mixrice, Hein-kuhn Oh, and Sangdom Kim--primary materials that provide the reader with a closer look at their art-making. It serves as a reader's gateway to the recent history of South Korean visual arts and public culture, marking the beginning of a more nuanced and multifaceted investigation of the South Korean aesthetics of politics. (From University of Washington Press website)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sohl Lee, "Preface"
Sohl Lee, "Introduction: Between Minjung and Taejung" (p.10-17)
Sohl Lee, "Sites of Resistant Collectivity: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Dong-won, Labor News Collective, Park Jae-dong (p.18-39)
Sohl Lee, "Reenacting History: Kim Min-gi, Hong Sung-dam, Hein-kuhn Oh (p.40-63)
Hein-kuhn Oh "Making the Gwangju Story" (1995) (p.62-3)
Sohl Lee, "Between One and Many: siren eun young jung, mixrice, Minouk Lim" (p.64-103)
Mixrice, "Conversations for Return" (2006) (p.94-5)
Minouk Lim, "A Bartleby within Myself: S.O.S.--Adoptive Dissensus" (2009) (p.102-3)
Sohl Lee, "Seoul Tour / Pyongyang Express: Chan-kyong Park, Seung Woo Back, listen to the city" (p.104-127)
Sohl Lee, "The Past is the Future: Park Bul-dong, Nam Gung Ho Seok" (p.128-139)
Sohl Lee, "Play to Fly: Sangdon Kim, Minari and Hack" (p.140-153)
Sangdon Kim, "Discoplan: A Workshop to Regenerate the Former Camp Nimble Site" (p.148-9)
Sohl Lee, "A Letter to the Future of Korean Art" (p.154-7)
Minouk Lim, "The (Im)Possibility of Art as Life" (p.158-163)
Namhee Lee, "Minjung, History, and the Crisis of Historical Subjectivity" (p.164-177)
Chang-nam Kim, "Kim Min-gi and the 1970s South Korean Youth Culture" (p. 178-187)
Wan-kyung Sung, "The Rise and Fall of Minjung Art" (p.188-202)
Biography (p.204-206)
Artists include: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Dong-won, Labor News Collective, Park Jae-dong, Kim Min-gi, Hong Sung-dam, Hein-kuhn Oh, Minouk Lim, mixrice, siren eunyoung jung, listen to the city, Chan-kyong Park, Seung Woo Back, Park Bul-dong, Nam Gung Ho Seok, Sangdon Kim, and Minari & Hack.
Being Political Popular documents the complex lines of thinking that scholars such as Chang-nam Kim, Namhee Lee, and Wan-kyung Sung have nurtured on the topics of the popular music and resistant youth culture of the 1970s, the politics of minjung subjectivity during the 1980s democracy movement, and the 1980s minjung art movement. The book also includes artists' writings and manifestos by Minouk Lim, mixrice, Hein-kuhn Oh, and Sangdom Kim--primary materials that provide the reader with a closer look at their art-making. It serves as a reader's gateway to the recent history of South Korean visual arts and public culture, marking the beginning of a more nuanced and multifaceted investigation of the South Korean aesthetics of politics. (From University of Washington Press website)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sohl Lee, "Preface"
Sohl Lee, "Introduction: Between Minjung and Taejung" (p.10-17)
Sohl Lee, "Sites of Resistant Collectivity: Choi Byung-soo, Kim Dong-won, Labor News Collective, Park Jae-dong (p.18-39)
Sohl Lee, "Reenacting History: Kim Min-gi, Hong Sung-dam, Hein-kuhn Oh (p.40-63)
Hein-kuhn Oh "Making the Gwangju Story" (1995) (p.62-3)
Sohl Lee, "Between One and Many: siren eun young jung, mixrice, Minouk Lim" (p.64-103)
Mixrice, "Conversations for Return" (2006) (p.94-5)
Minouk Lim, "A Bartleby within Myself: S.O.S.--Adoptive Dissensus" (2009) (p.102-3)
Sohl Lee, "Seoul Tour / Pyongyang Express: Chan-kyong Park, Seung Woo Back, listen to the city" (p.104-127)
Sohl Lee, "The Past is the Future: Park Bul-dong, Nam Gung Ho Seok" (p.128-139)
Sohl Lee, "Play to Fly: Sangdon Kim, Minari and Hack" (p.140-153)
Sangdon Kim, "Discoplan: A Workshop to Regenerate the Former Camp Nimble Site" (p.148-9)
Sohl Lee, "A Letter to the Future of Korean Art" (p.154-7)
Minouk Lim, "The (Im)Possibility of Art as Life" (p.158-163)
Namhee Lee, "Minjung, History, and the Crisis of Historical Subjectivity" (p.164-177)
Chang-nam Kim, "Kim Min-gi and the 1970s South Korean Youth Culture" (p. 178-187)
Wan-kyung Sung, "The Rise and Fall of Minjung Art" (p.188-202)
Biography (p.204-206)