Beyond folklore Korean art became well known in the West during the 80ies, when minjung art (»the art of the people«) was a vital part in the movement against military dictatorship and the opening of Korean society, starting with legendary mass protest in summer 1987. Since that time things have changed with unparalleled speed and South Korea is perceived today more than any other country as a constant first mover. Korean art has since established a considerable market power and as elsewhere started during the 90ies to intertwine with technological innovation in media art, performance and mixed media. Sponsoring and represenational needs of the big Chaebols provided some infrastructure (galleries, art centers, residencies) and reward for a young art scene that distanced itself from an all too easy identification with social movements but on the other side started to provoke with sublime analysis of the public media and advertisement industry, of which many of the artists are part of. When we visit art fairs around the globe, Koreans defniitely are there and if some buzz always is expected from them, the reason behind this expectation can be traced back to one individual, namely the father cum trickster of video art: Nam June Paik.

Paik Nam-june: Peking Man, 1992 (left) - Java Man, 1992 (right)

Paik opened the ubiquitous TV-Video experience - watching flat screens - to the spacial experience of installations and sculpture. That also allowed for a message that is generated around - or beyond - the screen. The relationship between flat, two-dimensional and three-dimensional spacial arrangements is one of the never ending dichotomies in art history. When media art started its hype, the end of panel paintings was forecasted: screen would eradicate painting. Since the tradition of painting in Asia developed without the regime of the central perspective, another way of depicting depth in a painting was developed that later influenced Cubism and other movements in the 1920ies in European avantgarde centers like Paris, Wien, Zürich or Berlin.

Something alluding but at the same time opposed to this seems to happen in contemporary Korean art. The lacmus artist of this tendency since the late 90ies is Gwon Osang. Trained as a sculptor Gwon uses photos and cut-out advertisements from magazines as his basic material. Nevertheless the resulting art work will be perceived as a sculpture - as in his series »Deodorant Type« - or spacial arrangement, - as in his series »The Flat«.

Gwon says that he is interested in still-life and states that still-life, which is a genre of painting, never developed in sculpture. What looks like the assortment in a beauty shop in his "The Flat 10" (above) consists of cut-out pieces from glossy magazines fixed with wires and "Flat 10" is a lamda print of this arrangement. Gwon shows off with a fellow artists statement: »... basically you are putting up a performance of trying to be a sculptor«. His latest »performance«, so to speak, was again dealing with a luxury issue: Gwons »The Sculpture« presents a bronze »Lamborghini« - completely overpainted. So is this - in the end - again: a painting? May be Gwon Osang can be approximately explained as a painter who's canvas is bending towards a new sort of spacial still-life.

Oscillating between the flat and a protruded imagery are the »Buddha Faces« of Hwang Ho-sup, exhibited at Art Cologne 2008. Here the bending screen fuses with its photographic background when looked at head-on.

Don't mind: the canvas of Lee Dong-seok is as flat as you can imagine. BUT: Overloaded with the intensity of real time trips accross global media super-highways (by the way: Paik Nam-june once coined this!) this imagery itself is protruding towards the beholder, and, as Klaus Honnef observes, almost annihilates its canvas.

It may be also noted that in line with classical surrealism the »globe« acts as fond of many of Lee Dong-seok's paintings. And finally, what the mass media successfully picked up from art history, namely that it is persuasive to have an eye on the observers, art itself today mirrors back: depicting the media eye watching us.

Traditional hanji paper is made from the inner bark of Mulberry trees. It is used in calligraphy and painting since centuries. Its durability and resilinence are legendary. The world's oldest surviving wood block print, the Buddhist »Pure Light Dharani Sutra,« which is Korea's National Treasure No. 126, was printed on hanji in c. 704 and is still in good condition. Hanji is also used in interior architecture (windows, furniture).

Korean artist Seo Jeong-min collects used hanji paper sheets and scrolls, usually left aside by artists and writers as sketches, proofs or essays that were replaced by a final version. Seo cuts out sheets of hanji paper and rolls them up into single dense tubes or arranges overlays that resemble thin blocks of wood. Artist Michael Anderson states that »Rather than being seen as wasted efforts, the castoffs Seo has gathered to make his work become a sort of informal collaboration among peers.«

Seo Jeong-min: Circulative Grains III (left) - The Old Memory (middle) - Detail (right)

The fascination of Seo's art work comes from its oscillation between a somewhat two-dimensional canvas-like overal impression and the three-dimensional parts, the art work is composed of. An affinity to modern media can be seen in a structure alluding to pixels, visual electronic media are using as their basic units to combine them to perceivable (moving) pictures. But Seo's »pixels« are hand made individuals, bending into space, containing a volume, each having a history, an »ecriture«, and thus a memory of its own: bending pixels.

The bending screen as observed here in selected works of some outstanding Korean contemporary artists, blurs the line between painting and sculpture but also opens unexpected proximity between areas or - so to speak - sectors of the canvas. The still-life of our times can be identified in the synchronicity of whatever affairs, may be like a permanent zapping activity with a multi-dimensional split screen, may be as an ensemble of enrolled memories in the work of Seo Jeong-min or in temples around the world. Bending the canvas may be the practice of our time.

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Paik Nam-june: NAM JUNE PAIK, eine DATA base, hrsg. von Klaus Bußmann und Florian Matzner, Biennale di Venezia 1993, German Pavillion, edition Cantz 1993, photos courtesy Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati

Kwon Osang: website www.osang.net, courtesy Arario Gallery, Seoul

Hwang Ho-sup: Art Cologne 2008, photos by the author

Lee Dong-seok: Art Fair Cologne 2011, Solo Exhibition, courtesy Jay Gallery, Seoul, catalogue with an essay »Lee Dong Seok« by Klaus Honnef. © Lee Dong Seok & Jay Gallery 2011

Seo Jeong-min: Catalogue SUH JEONG MIN (Jeong Hak), Insa Art Center 2010.10.6. ~ 2010.10.12. © Suh Jeong Min 2010, photos courtesy Suh Jeong Min

Tradition Formed Anew: The Art of Seo Jeongmin, by Michael Anderson (Jay Gallery, link to pdf)

A compilation of interviews with sculptor Gwon Osang, conducted by Arario’s curator Ju-hyeon Lee, English version