Death of painting is dead

A view of Kong Sung-hun's ‘Dusky Landscape," an exhibition currently underway at Arario Gallery Seoul in downtown Seoul through Nov. 8
/ Courtesy of the artist and Arario Gallery

Kong Sung-hun explores borders of reality in landscapes

This is the 15th in a series of interviews with notable artists recommended by the Korean Artist Project, an online platform promoting Korean art. ― ED.

By Kwon Mee-yoo

As science aids progress for humanity, it also exercises influence in the field of art. The development of science gave wings to art. Artists enjoy great possibilities through new media art and installations, while traditional painting appears to be going downhill. Still, some artists believe in the value of painting, which contains the rudiments of art, and Kong Sung-hun is one who continues to practice it.

Born in 1965, Kong majored in Western painting at Seoul National University and studied electronic engineering at Seoul Tech, then-Seoul National University of Technology.

"Back in the 1980s, Korean art was bifurcated ― it was either 'minjung misul' (propaganda folk painting) or abstract art. Minjung misul was derived from the social sciences, while abstract art is based on humanities. So I wanted to explore scientific, engineering-related fine art," Kong said. "Visual art is the only form of art that deals with something physical. That is why I decided to study engineering."

Kong Sung-hun's "White Hairs and Smoke" (2014)

Kong's earlier works were bright, witty and experimental as a young artist tried to gain presence in the world of art. He made an LED display that reads "Art is expensive" and a vending machine that sells artwork for 1,000 won ($1) in 1992.

Though he transferred to further study electronic engineering, it was more about improving his life as an artist than incorporating high-tech media in his works. "My early installations were mostly used low-tech, which did not require college-level engineering skills," he said.

He began concentrating on painting in the late 1990s and presented his first work in 2000. It was a painting of a dog in his neighborhood, raised to be eaten.

Kong Sung-hun's "Buoy" (2012-2015)

"That was when people started to say that traditional forms of painting were dead. However, I thought I could do some painting finally," Kong said.

Around the time, he moved from Seoul to Byeokje, Gyeonggi Province, a rural town north of Seoul. "As I come home from work late at night, I often saw these dogs in my neighbor's yard. I thought I could visualize the sentiment I felt from the secluded suburb through the dogs."

He could have taken pictures of the dogs or used other state-of-the-art media to portray them, but instead Kong raised his brush. "Media is an indirect medium. As I saw the bleak scenery and the dogs in the flesh, I wanted to work in a physical way," said the artist.

Kong Sung-hun's "Surveillance Tower" (2015) / Courtesy of the artist

Kong also mentioned the sensual pleasure of painting. "Holding a brush and applying paint onto a canvas has a sensual quality. The paint, brush, canvas and the body of the painter creates something voluptuous. Personally the pleasure of painting makes me a painter, like many other artists."

Kong's paintings are based on what he saw around him. "I can't work with something I don't know well. An artist communicates with the viewers through artwork and we should start conversation from that point," he said. "I know the dogs, the neighborhood and the town. I convey what I felt from the landscape to the viewers."

At his latest solo exhibition titled "Dusky Landscape," currently underway at Arario Gallery Seoul in downtown Seoul through Nov. 8, Kang further delves into the theme capturing the fleeting moment of twilight.

One of the paintings that stands out is "Willow Tree," a six-meter-long series depicting willow branches of photographic quality, which resemble tree roots from another angle.

His world widens as he moves to another town and travels across the nation. Kong mostly takes pictures of what he late decides to paint.

"It takes a long time to decide what to paint. When I take hundreds of photos, only one or two become an artwork. I try to derive a story from the photos by adding a new element, exaggerating or distorting light or alter compositions."

His 2013 painting "Cliff (A Smoking Man)" features a crouching man smoking on a rugged precipice. The man, in fact, is the artist himself. "For me, smoking a cigarette is a projection of a sigh. So this is a man on a cliff, giving a deep sigh to water, or an abyss," the artist explained.

Though his style might have changed utterly from conceptual installation works to landscape paintings, Kong endlessly pursed the same theme through his works ― questioning the relations between art and reality.

"My work does not speak socially or politically, but I try to keep it intact to our life. Art comes from imagination, but the imagination should be rooted in reality to gain sympathy," the artist said. "Generally, landscape painting is about the scenery. However, the natural scene works as a stage setting in my works. Whether there is a human figure in the painting or not, the paintings have a certain theatrical quality."

He believes that painting involves labor, which gives the genre a spiritual dimension. "In such a systemized world, there is little possibility of labor in art. However, painting features personal, voluntary labor from beginning to end and an artist has to make decisions in each process. The physical labor and the artist's agony breathe life into the painting," he said.

Kong's concentration on painterly painting paid off when he won the Korea Artist Prize in 2013. The judges said that Kong's landscape paintings successfully convey a sense of angst set in mundane settings that contain emotionally arresting depth.

Kim Jeong-rak, an art critic and Korea National Open University professor, said that Kong's efforts to reflect reality in his works are not simply an act of mimesis. "Kong fabricates stylized contemporary landscapes that critically represent the artificiality of today's society by highlighting art as artificiality," Kim said.

For more information, visit www.koreanartistproject.com or the artist's website at www.kongsunghun.com.