Monologues, the 4th National Art Studio Alumni Artists Exhibition held at the Korean Cultural Centre, UK is designed to showcase the artistic capabilities of four promising Korean artists of the Studio to a global audience.
Based on Korean sentiment, their works reflect exploratory views of the self and society amid everyday languages and ideas. What was regarded as most important in selecting the artists was whether they could continue to develop their artistic concepts and showcase diverse and uncommon creations. We also expected the artists to find a unique presence of their own in the creative world and that their artworks-as a result of in-depth thinking-would find a certain common ground.
Sunny KIM is a Korean-American who moved to the United States when she was a child, living there for much of her life. She sifts through our surrounding imagery and through her filter of personal sensitivity converts inner characteristics to a third-person perspective using symbols and metaphors. Specifically, she borrows images from a childhood in Korea not realized in her own life, from someone else's photo albums or movies and creates narratives of discontinued experiences and memories.
Artist Mackerel Safranski urges herself and society at large to perceive art as a critical function of everyday life by applying various colours and dramatic elements to the canvas.
LEE Eunsil talks about the psychological phenomena of basic desires of humanity through the use of metaphors and symbols. Using her unique visual language, she explores the complexities of human nature and the boundaries between our reality and the metaphysical. Furthermore, by transforming the mundane to the grotesque and through her use of imagery pertaining to sexual preference, LEE Eunsil invites a discussion of the human subconscious. LEE Jinju creates visual narratives depicting scenes of personal and societal anguish through the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate subjects. Through this process she explores instances in which one's ego assigns too much importance to events. Recognizable icons arranged in a puzzle-like manner transform the familiar to the alien. She explores her creative realm using various aspects of our inner world, such as the contradictory and complex psychology of people today and explores their every-day relationships.
The theme of extremely private self-consciousness attracts the attention of the public, both of the East and West. We may feel comfortable examining our ego from these artists’ quiet monologues presented in their works, which can be interpreted many different ways. Using this exhibition as a guide, one may discover relationships previously overlooked or taken for granted.
Sunset by Sunny Kim, 2008. Acrylic on canvas, 100x 125 cm
Having Red Children by Mackrel Safranski, 2008. Mixed media, 29.7x 21 cm.