Exhibition Information

Poem Dedicated to My Dead Brother
2019 00:00:50

Interview About Chinese Character
2019 00:10:57

			『Mungunghwa Samcheoli Hwaryeogangsan』 (Roses of Sharon and three thousand Ri full of splendid mountains and rivers) is an AHA exhibition focusing on the lack of values and appreciating the beauty of traditional arts in todays' society, especially the current phenomenon of Korean society consuming Pre-modern art as an object not as an art piece. The title of this exhibition 'Mungunghwa Samcheoli Hwaryeogangsan' is taken from the refrain of National Anthem of Korea (Aegukga), which evokes a widely acknowledged national image. 

 Using the terms 'Korean Painting' and 'Oriental Painting' is already controversial, as any of the concepts, rules, materials, matters, forms or genres of them is not defined well enough until today. There are a few issues with the subject here that we found interesting. First of all, the error of Orientalism in reverse is caused by people using traditional art pieces just as materials without a context and results in recurring to a trap of past-oriented ideas that drive themselves to the periphery of the art world. Secondly, there is a tendency to see diverse Korean Arts as a copycat simply imitating external post-modernism without any traditional base. Based on these situations above, pretensions overflowing with national identity and a kind of obsession with Koreanness provoke a dilemma when doing value-creating activities. 
It sometimes occurs that elements from other cultures are replacing something existing when a variety of modern media depict Korean Painting. A firm and common idea of Korean Paintings only including landscape paintings, literati painting and Sagoonja is reproduced rapidly while main values are omitted or contexts are being veiled. If we keep looking at only the scraps when facing pre-modern arts, we could possibly misunderstand the aspects of 'living' arts today that continue to evolve constantly with the experiments of artists now. 

AHA raises awareness of the issues about some parts of tendency surrounding Korean traditional cultures after bringing objects of observations in ordinary environment to its workspace. AHA's artworks in the exhibition 'Mungunghwa Samcheoli Hwaryeogangsan' get rid of a margin associated with its value-context while reproducing traditional paintings and calligraphy in a similar form. The expression here seems to take advantage of the current trends in which the 21st century processes traditional cultures, however, ironically it rather approaches the critical aspect above as a sort of twist reflecting the reality. Throughout our works the attitude of AHA is connected to the interpretation making clear what we think of Koreanness and Korean traditional arts.

 Could AHA artists having studied in the art academy for several years overturn the self-contradiction in the oriental painting? AHA creators have reproduced a tradition without being a tradition. Should we take the artworks of AHA as a mirror reflecting our present status? 

Paik Phil Gyun