Kang Kukjin, Display-Amusement of Visual Sense, 1967(partly remade 2001), 151 penicillin bottles, table, mirror, artist photo, aramis scent bottle, belongings, 165×155cm. MMCA collection
Kang Kukjin
* Source: MMCA
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Non Col
An art group formed in 1962 by five alumni of Hongik University: Chung Chanseung, Han Youngsup, Choi Taeshin, and Kim Inhwan. The name Non Col derived from the old name for the Hongjaewon, where their joint studio was located. In February 1965, the group held its first exhibition at the Sinmunhoegwan Gallery with the support of Hankook Ilbo newspaper, which also published Non Col Art, a magazine for the group. Written correspondence and interviews indicate that the members of the group were highly critical of the Korean contemporary art scene at the time. They felt both a sense of responsibility to engage in social activism as part of the April Revolution generation, and a desire to move away from participating in the state supported exhibitions which used the competition format. The group disbanded in 1967 after its third exhibition. Afterward, several members spearheaded the establishment of the Sinjeon Group in 1967. This avant-garde orientated group was part of the new generation that emerged within the Korean art community after Informel began to lose momentum.
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Sinjeon Group
An art organization formed in 1967 by alumni of Hongik University. Chung Chanseung and Kim Inwhan were previously members of Non Col, a group formed in 1962. Their work was characterized by Informel, but after Nonkkol disbanded due to differences in opinion within the membership, the two formed the Sinjeon Group alongside Kang Kukjin, Yang Deoksu, Shim Sunhee, and Jung Kangja, and they participated in the Union Exhibition of Korean Young Artists. The Sinjeon Group, in its departure from Informel, engaged in experimental work such as objet art, installations, and happenings.
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Union Exhibition of Korean Young Artists
The Union Exhibition of Korean Young Artists was an art show that members from Origin Fine Arts Association, Zero Group, and Sinjeon Group organized to be held at the Korean Information Center Gallery from December 11th to December 17th, 1967. By choosing to present works in what were the mainstream genres in Western art, such as pop art, op art, environmental art, happenings, and sculpture, the Exhibition helped to usher in a new era for Korean art after the dominance of the Informel group. Members from the three groups were mostly graduates from Hongik University. The manifesto they released stated: “Informel didn’t provide anything for last ten years. We are artists as activists who aim to create art after abstraction, art in everyday life, and public-friendly art.” This manifesto clearly expressed a desire to challenge the art world establishment, and the Coalition Exhibition is often considered as the beginning of a period of Korean “Experimental art (silheom misul),” which existed from the end of the 1960s to 1970s.
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Installation
In a general sense, the term “installation” refers to the display or arrangement of artwork within an exhibition. In a stricter sense, the term “installation” can also refer to an art work specifically based in its wider display environment. Such installation art often attempts to enable the audience to become part of the new environment that the work creates. In this circumstance, the artwork becomes defined not only by its space, but also in terms of the relationship between the work, space and the audience.
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Chung Chanseung
Chung Chanseung (1942-1994) was a painter, performance artist, and installation artist. He was a pioneering figure who led experimental art in Korea in the 1960s and 1970s. He graduated from the Western Painting Department at Hongik University in 1965. After graduation, he was active in the artist collective Non Col, which he founded while still in college along with Kang Kukjin, Kim Inwhan, Nam Yeonghui, Yang Cheolmo, Choi Taeshin, and Han Youngsup. He also presented abstract paintings in the style of Art Informel. In 1967, he formed the Sinjeon Group, a group pursuing anti-art practices, together with Kang Kukjin, Jung Kangja, and others, and with members of Origin Society and Zero Group, he organized the Union Exhibition of Korean Young Artists. In 1968, Chung staged the happenings Transparent Balloon and Nude and Murder at the Han Riverside with Kang Kukjin and Jung Kangja. In 1969, he appeared in the experimental film The Meaning of 1/24 Second directed by Kim Kulim. In June 1970, he formed Korea’s first total art collective The Fourth Group with Kim Kulim, Bang Taesu, Son Ilgwang, and others. They presented the street happenings Street Theatre and Funeral of the Established Culture and Art. As these happenings by The Fourth Group were deemed decadent by government authorities, Chung focused on printmaking and three-dimensional works in and after the 1970s. After participating in the 1980 Paris Biennale, he moved to the U.S. a year later in 1981. Until his illness forced him to return to South Korea in 1994, Chung lived in the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York and was immersed in making his distinctive junk art creations that connected metal scraps and discarded objects in a variety of manners.
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Performance
Performance is a genre within which artists use their voice, body, and objects to express their artistic vision through live action. It became popularized after World War II as an experimental genre through the work of John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Performance can be related to other movements of the period such as action painting, body art, happening, process art, Fluxus, and conceptual art. It is characterized by audience participation, improvisation, spontaneity, and provocativeness. The first work of performance in Korea is widely considered to be The Happening with Plastic Umbrellas and Candle Lights performed by Kang Kukjin, Chung Chanseung, Kim Youngja, Jung Kangja, Shim Sunhee, and Kim Inwhan during the Union Exhibition of Korean Young Artists held at the Korean Information Service Gallery in December 1967.
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