1988 Woman of the woman 여성의 여성

 Woman of the woman

-Finding the identity of life-

■ Period: Sep. 10th – 17th, 1998
■ Place: Art center ‘Sol’
■ Organized by: Independent Curator, Okreal Kim
■ Critic: Okreal Kim
■ Artists: Myung-mi Lee, Young-sik Lee, Kang-mi Yoon

::Finding the identity of life
Today, one is accustomed to human mechanization, caused by materialism originated from the diffusion of consumption culture, and by the flood of reproduction. That is to say, woman has been devaluated and projected in immoral pornography by the commercial images indiscreetly used, materialism, and the banalized notion of reproduction. It is about time to dedicate our time and passion to the restoration of femininity and to finding of the identity of life, and establish the new values of the human beings. In this context, this exhibition proposes to erase these negative images of woman, set up a new vision of femininity and be actively engaged in finding the meaning of her existence. 

Artists and their work

Myung-mi Lee, lady & gentleman, Acryl on canvas (227.3×181.8㎝), 1998.

Myung-mi Lee - Encounter: “Figurative images” and “Letters”

To practice her definition of art: ‘art must be fundamentally easy, and should avoid being too serious,’ she paints in an easy and amusing way. Her work starts from a ‘play.’  Though it is not so explicit, a certain clarity exists in her work of free imagination and liberation. That is because there is a certain system established between the letters (of sound) and the figurative images (of vision). To be more specific, assimilating the figurative images of flexible meaning with the letters, she attempts to minimize the polysemy of a visual image and transforms their inconsistent relationship to an intimate one between two different systems. The traditional thought: ‘a mistaken sense can misguide impressions’ is now reconfirmed.

 Young-sik Lee, False image-s, Acryl on ‘gomushin’, 1998.

Young-sik Lee – Looking at images to find the truth

The anxiety and isolation of the moderns are due to the overlooked oppressions caused by materialism and mass reproduction. The artist Young-sik Lee transfers the false image of these modern phenomena to an object, ‘gomushin (Korean traditional shoes).’ It is an attempt to trace back the origin of life and suggest “looking at the image” in order to “find the truth”, using the opposing senses of ‘real’ and ‘unreal,’ and of being ‘full’ and ‘empty.’ The logic in it is; the true image can be vividly demonstrated only when the false image is emphasized - like a beam of light shines more brightly in the darkness of the night. Such paradoxical analogy will help each of us to find the internal truth in ourselves. 

 Kang-mi Yoon, Castle in the air, 

Dying of cotton yarn and silk screen on paper (400×300㎝), 1998. 

Kang-mi Yoon – Rapport between myth and everyday life

Kang-mi Yoon realizes the objects of everyday life and the mythical figures on canvas with intense strokes of brush and builds an intimate rapport between them. This is done as what lies under the surface of the myth and daily life comes out and transcends time and space. This encounter is that of artist’s imagination and her formative power, which enchants us to travel in this strange world, artist’s realm of the real and the imaginative.

Sep.10th, 1998
Okreal Kim(Independent Curator)