Photographer of disappearance

Kang Hong-goo's "Mickey House — Cloud" (2005)

This is the 16th 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

Artist Kang Hong-goo had a small digital camera strapped around his neck when he came to the interview with The Korea Times at Gallery Lux in central Seoul last week, where his exhibit "Methodology to Escape" with Choi Gene-uk was being exhibited.

"I usually carry a camera since I don't know when and what to shoot. I would bring a larger digital single-reflex lens (DSLR) camera for planned shootings, but I tend to lighten the load when I have nothing planned," Kang said. "What is important is the perspective behind the viewfinder."

His latest works on display are mixed media, adding brushstrokes over photographs printed on canvas. Kang, known for his series of photos capturing traces of vanishing places, or redevelopment areas, said he added paint on the photo to "complete" the image.

"I studied painting and took photos for a long time. There is this brazen aspect about a photo ― it seems factual, official and the photographer believes so. However, photos are diverse and they lie as well. I take photos on the scene and try to match the photo with what I saw, but the photo itself is not enough. So I decided to create an image that is neither a photo nor a painting, but closer to what I really saw," the artist explained.

Kang Hong-goo's 2004 work "Hwanghakdong 2" captures Hwanghak-dong in central Seoul, which went through redevelopment in the mid-2000s. / Courtesy of Kang Hong-goo

"As I majored in painting I was pressured by painting as a medium because of its long-standing history. So I tried something new with the computer and my first non-traditional work was a photomontage of magazine photos. I didn't know that I would end up taking pictures," Kang said.

Kang said he was attracted to photography because it was the major means to produce, distribute and consume the images of our generation.

"Most of the images we see today are based on photos. We think we know about photographic images because they are visually similar to what we see. However, we don't know much about them in fact ― photography is an ambiguous medium and it is easy to lie with photographic images."

The artist said taking a photograph seems under the photographer's complete control, but the camera captures more than meets the eye. "A camera has this power of instant documentation, but it also captures the subconscious ― the photographic, social and contemporary subconscious."

Another exhibit of Kang's, titled "The City We Have Known" is being exhibited at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon. The exhibit explores the phenomenon of disappearance in the urban environment.

The exhibit mainly features Kang's major works centering on the scenery of urban redevelopment. The artist jokingly said, "All these places in my pictures do not exist now. If you want something to be gone, ask me and I will take photos of it."

His major work portraying redevelopment zones began by chance. "I witnessed and photographed Oshoi-ri, a small town near Gimpo Airport, west of Seoul. It was around 2000 and the whole village started to disappear because of the airport," Kang said. "When I looked around, there were many more like Oshoi-ri near us. I realized our indifference toward those towns and thought someone should capture them before it became too late. I didn't know I would continue this for over a decade."

Kang produces composite photos stitching several digital images together. "I wanted to create a wide shot, showing the whole landscape of redevelopment. It relates to the fragmentary characteristics of photography. A photo is always a fragment of the world and I put the pieces together," he said.

He moved into a new studio in Gupabal, northwestern Seoul, in 2001 and took photos of the neighboring Eunpyeong District, which underwent a major transformation through the Eunpyeong New Town redevelopment project.

"The villages began to disappear and I shot them frantically before they were gone for good. I tried to distance myself, trying my best to be being objective and candid. However, in time, my works have become a documentary," Kang said.

Lee Sa-bine, curator of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, said Kang's works have a unique atmosphere to them, hovering between reality and fiction, criticism and enjoyment, seriousness and levity.

"To a certain extent, the odd balance that results in his work can be attributed to his photographic attitude of distance from his subjects, as if he is attempting to negotiate the parameters of his role as an onlooker. This attitude in turn reflects the complex mind of the artist: always an outside observer who is helpless to change the situation yet cannot remain indifferent," Lee said.

Art and society

Kang said an artist cannot be separated from society. "There's nothing closer to society than art. For instance, mathematics can be free from ideology, but art cannot be detached from social issues," he said. "However, it does not mean that an artist necessarily asserts something about society. One just portrays society in one's own way."

Kang's works call attention to his desires for society. By all appearances, they are just about dwellings, but the artist wants to awaken thoughts on the greed produced by society and that maintain society. "My perspective is close to daily life and I want to make the viewers cast another glance on mundane life," he said.

The artist sees the scenes of redevelopment as a reenactment of desire. "Such trivial, ordinary scenery reflects the desire of material riches in society. The social system imposes greed on people and those who don't satisfy this craving for greed are labeled incompetent. That is the horrendous part."

However, Kang is turning his eye from the redevelopment zones, saying too many photographers now take interest in that theme. "It also exhausted me, taking photos of disappearing towns."

His latest project is capturing the urban structure of Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

"I have been taking photos of Cheongju for some three years on request of Woomin Art Center. The city is intriguing, composed of an old downtown, a new downtown, rural areas and an industrial complex," Kang explained.

He has also been taking photos of the islands of Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, where he was born. "There are some 1,000 islands in the region, including some that are uninhabited. I am visiting some 90 inhabited islands, photographically recording them. I want to encompass a whole myriad of the place, region and space," the artist said.

For more information, visit www.koreanartistproject.com.