Park Chan-Kyong  (b. 1965, Seoul)

Park Chan-Kyong, Black Out(2009), 1 channel video(6 min., color with sound), 7 framed photographs, Courtesy of the Artist


Park is an artist, art critic, teacher and organizer. Directly influenced by Minjung Art (People¡¯s Art Movement) of the 80s, Park has shown a dedication to post-colonial awareness of locality and critical art discourses in Korean art. Regional criticism in Park¡¯s works takes the form of a realism manifested in a particular space and time in Korea. As art theorist his interests range from socio-political economics to history and cultural politics. He regularly addresses topics such as national division, polarization in condensed modernization, historical discontinuity due to military dictatorship and polemics around the autonomy of local art languages. In his art practice, Park¡¯s conceptual realism examines issues of codified representations and their vicious loop of mutual co-figuration within social breaches (as in Flying). The analytical standpoint and structural compactness of the photographs and videos by Park have become a frame of reference for the art scene of the 90s as a form of local critical acuteness.

Park¡¯s new piece Black Out is composed of a video and photographs that portray his artistic position in a much simpler format. The video shows scanned images of North Korean seascape paintings that are manufactured by Mansudae Art Studio in N. Korea; the artist intervenes the sequence of images by incorporating black flickering screens. Is the artist simply criticizing the prototypical appropriation of romantic revolutionary imagery for national propaganda? To quote Park, ¡°the overt projection of revolutionary imagery onto the paintings on the contrary, reminds me of the chronic insufficiency of energy in N. Korea. These paintings perfectly serve their function by supporting the spirit of the people. On the other hand, isn¡¯t my ¡®video art¡¯ wasting electricity, on top of stealing their paintings?¡± Park¡¯s question provokes the issue of art¡¯s performative efficacy and its pragmatic evaluation in today¡¯s function-oriented society.