Forty-six artists were invited to participate in the third installment, Weaving Time. Instead of a chronological arrangement of their works, the artists are grouped in five themes to highlight vital issues in tune with currents of contemporary art around the world. These artists sometimes moved from one country to another, chasing opportunities and new ideas. This is an exciting occasion to observe what they have accomplished so far and to predict where they are proceeding next. Twenty years from now, this exhibition will become an indispensable part of the Archive of Korean Artists Abroad, another acronym for AKAA.
Participating artists are, though not limited to: Hong Seon Jang, Jongil Ma, Yusam Sung, Boonsun Lee, Yun-Woo Choi, Kyung Han Kim, Jesse Chun, Sang Wook Lee, Buhm Hong, Eunjung Hwang, Eun Hyung Kim, Jaye Rhee, Kakyoung Lee, Jiyoun Lee-Lodge, Heeseop Yoon, Haeri Yoo, Inyoung Seong, Kyung Jeon, Leeah Joo, Jang Soon Im, Chang-Jin Lee, Inmi Lee, Kira Nam Greene, Flora Choi, Suyeon Na, kate hers RHEE, Hayoon Jay Lee, Songyi M. Kim, Sangwoo Koh, Jung S. Kim, Yunjung Kang, Eunah Kim, Jayoung Yoon, Hein Koh, Eunnye Yang, Elly Cho, Heejung Cho, Sang-Mi Yoo, Jin-Kang Park, Inhye Lee, Eunkyung Lee, Grace Euna Kim, Hye-Ryoung Min, Zaun Lee, Yoon Cho, Taeseong Kim
Weaving Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean Artists in America, Part Three, 2001–2013 is supported in part by the Cultural Development Fund of the Department of Cultural Affairs in New York City and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.
Weaving Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean Artists in America, Part Three 2001-2013 is organized into several thematic sections:
Dismantling Boundaries
Artists who arrived in the United States in the late 1990s were college students during Korea’s prosperous years following the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Exposed to strong economic growth and development in Korea, they had already traveled abroad and chose New York, among other cities, to pursue their artistic careers. Those who arrived immediately after 9/11 and those who experienced the events of 9/11 focused much on the connectivity of human beings within a larger community. Still emerging from Korea’s rigorous training in art studio programs, these artists were seeking for innovative ways to express themselves. Just like the Generation Xers in the United States, these artists welcomed and embraced new technology and thrived in the field both with their accustomed vocabulary and with a provocative twist. As much as the Generation Xers were known for individualism, artists of this period also strived to reach out beyond their individual shell and trace connectivity between the self and the community, the self and the universe, and the self and the alter ego. Artists of this group were receptive to new ideas and challenges. Stretched across both worlds in Asia and North America, they extend their artistic experiments into an intricate network of social relationships and global encounters.
Transcendent Narrative
At the turn of the twenty-first century, many artists sought out the emerging field of technology and multidisciplinary approaches. Yet artists in this group were eager to develop their own language of formal quest. Reminiscent of the steel sculptures of the 1950s or the minimalist works of the 1960s, the artists’ constructions are reserved, refined, and sophisticated. Instead of focusing on external changes of global society, they cultivated a new vocabulary and insinuated undercurrent problems of post–Cold War and post-colonial politics. Many artists in this group create ambitious installations or public art projects. Materials are diverse, from eco-friendly wood to video, thread, and paper. They may constitute a new age of constructive formalism with social activism.
Cosmopolitan Citizen
After the 9/11 attacks, world politics were being reshaped. As the Middle East is returning to conservatism, East Asia presents a shining image of progressive strides in art and culture. Korean heritage is reinterpreted with growing confidence from economic success, K-Pop, Korean cinema, and the urban panache of hip centers. At the same time historical awareness is represented in visual arts with more nuanced and contextual approaches. Many problems disseminating from Korean history are now perceived as part of East Asian geopolitical legacy, such as Japanese Imperialism and post–World War II Nationalism. Using video installations, performances, or public art projects along with oil painting, drawing, and collages, artists unearth new genres and critical voices.
Difference and Self-Reflexivity
Body politics from the last decade of the twentieth century remained crucial for the artists of this generation. In continuity of the body representation in the 1990s, these artists focused on the images of self and also significant others. A woman’s physique is represented in conventional or unconventional ways in which their roles are exaggerated, reduced, or transformed in post-industrial society. Interests in Korean exceptionalism or universal cosmopolitanism do appear in this exploration of corporal sensitivity.
Subjective Community
A predominant trend among artists of this exhibition is the focus on self. Yet many artists transcend individualism into a unique sense of communalism or community-inspired art works. For some, self is defined through the relationship with the world surrounding oneself. This conscious effort of situating oneself within a complicated urban fabric is noticeable among this group of artists. Sometimes embedded sometimes distanced, artists observe and decode communities, buildings, streets, and landscapes that they encounter across their global journey.
Weaving Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean Artists in America, Part Three, 2001–2013 is co-curated by Kyunghee Pyun, Assistant Professor in history of art at the State University of New York, Fashion Institute of Technology, and Hee Sung Cho, curator of Gallery Korea at the Korean Cultural Service New York. Dr. Soojung Hyun at Manhattanville College and Donghwa Cultural Foundation is a chief researcher of the project.
