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Park Chan-Kyong: Citizen's Forest

Past exhibition
13 September - 13 October 2018
  • Installation Views
  • Press release
  • News
Installation Views
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Installation View of Citizen's Forest by Park Chan-Kyong. Image by Jeremy Haik.
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Installation View of Citizen's Forest by Park Chan-Kyong. Image by Jeremy Haik.
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Installation View of Citizen's Forest by Park Chan-Kyong. Image by Jeremy Haik.
Installation View of Citizen's Forest by Park Chan-Kyong. Image by Jeremy Haik.
Press release

Opening Reception: Thursday, 13 September 2018 | 6 – 8 PM

 

Tina Kim Gallery is pleased to present Citizen's Forest, a solo exhibition by Park Chan-Kyong. The multi-disciplinary artist utilizes film, video and photography to examine the complex social and political history of South Korea. His work pays particular attention to Korea’s enduring folk traditions and shamanism as well as the profound impact of the Korean War and subsequent partition of North and South. On view 13 September – 13 October 2018, the exhibition includes two video works and a series of photographs by the Seoul-based artist. This is Park’s second solo show in New York; his first exhibition at the gallery was in 2016.

 

Situated in the front gallery is Child Soldier (2017 – 2018), a series of photographs and film stills that depict North Korean soldiers doing everyday activities. While seemingly innocuous, Park’s images suggest that young soldiers in the North Korean People’s Army may not be as ideologically rigid as portrayed. Instead Park depicts the young men as ordinary, lazy and innocent, wandering in the forest, reading and listening to music. This reimagination of daily life forces the viewer to move beyond propagandistic depictions and confront the stark ideologies that govern contemporary Korean society. Child Soldier begs the question: Is there an image of North Korea that is free of ideology, politics, or war?

 

Gallery two features the critically acclaimed video Citizen’s Forest (2016), a three-channel installation that serves as an allegory of modern-day Korea. Evoking literary genres ranging from Asian gothic to heavy metal, the video chronicles major tragedies in the nation’s past such as the Donghak Peasant Revolution (1894), the Korean War (1950 – 1953), the Gwangju Uprising (1980) and the recent Sewol Ferry Disaster (2014). The work’s panoramic structure evokes traditional “shan-su” (landscape) scroll paintings. This narrative format was inspired by two historical works by beloved Korean artists: Oh Yoon’s incomplete work The Lemures chronicles the many forgotten victims in Korean history and the poem by Kim Soo-young, Colossal Roots. In Citizen’s Forest, viewers are invited to accompany this ragtag group as they walk slowly through the forest; mixing history and fiction, the actors play musical instruments and impersonate the dead as they mourn the loss of their fellow citizens. 
 
The final work in the show is a newly commissioned video titled BELIEVE IT OR NOT (2018). Created by Park Chan-Kyong and his brother Park Chan-Wook under the moniker PARKing CHANce, BELIEVE IT OR NOT is a scripted narrative that tells a gripping story of State sponsored spying and deception through the eyes of defectors and those who help them escape. Confronting directly the disinformation that exists in both North and South Korea, the video is inspired by real individuals who have crossed the cultural and military borders that separate the two nations. Taking cues from people who have chosen to publicly denounce their country of origin, resettle and then sometimes return home again, Park tells a story where defectors may in fact be acting as spies and double agents and it is never clear what one’s motives really are. In so doing, Park forces the audience to question the integrity and motivations of both North and South Korea, relaying the stark human cost of Cold War politics and propaganda, and confronting the fear and paranoia that still underlies the Korean peninsula. 

 

ABOUT PARK CHAN-KYONG

 

Park Chan-Kyong (b. 1965) is a media artist, film director and writer. He graduated from Seoul National University in 1988 with a BFA in Painting, and the California Institute of the Arts with a MFA in Photography in 1995. Park served as the Artistic Director of the SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul in 2014. His major works include Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits (2013), Night Fishing (2011, co-directed by Park Chan-wook), Sindoan (2008), Power Passage (2004) and Sets (2000).

 

Park’s work has exhibited internationally in numerous solo and group exhibitions including Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017), Taipei Biennial (2016), Anyang Public Art Project (2016), Iniva, London (2015), Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2013), and Atelier Hermès, Seoul (2008, 2012). Park was awarded the Hermès Korea Art Award in 2004, and the Golden Bear for best short film at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 for Night Fishing.

 

His works are included in the collection of major art institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; KADIST, Paris and San Francisco; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Nantes; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; Seoul Museum of Art; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan; and Art Sonje Center, Seoul.

News
  • ‘Park Chan-kyong: Gathering’ plumbs themes of death and transcendence

    ‘Park Chan-kyong: Gathering’ plumbs themes of death and transcendence

    The Washington Post November 13, 2023
    By Mark Jenkins National Museum of Asian Art inaugurates galleries dedicated to modern and contemporary art with videos and photos that explore Korean history and...
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  • Multimedia artist Park Chan-kyong to hold first solo show at Smithsonian

    Multimedia artist Park Chan-kyong to hold first solo show at Smithsonian

    The Korea Times August 11, 2023
    By Park Han-sol Multimedia artist Park Chan-kyong is set to hold his first solo exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art this fall...
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  • Park Chan-kyong at Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

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    ArtReview Asia April 1, 2020
    By Andy St. Louis Andy St. Louis on the South Korean artist’s latest project that contemplates how society copes in the aftermath of disaster In...
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  • The powers of an art museum as a gathering place: Park Chan-kyong pushes against the authority of curators

    The powers of an art museum as a gathering place: Park Chan-kyong pushes against the authority of curators

    Korea JoongAng Daily November 5, 2019
    By Yoon So-Yeon In a post-apocalyptic world where society and politics no longer look like they once did, what would people gather together for? Multimedia...
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  • Park Chan-kyong’s ‘Gathering’ explores what museum can become

    Park Chan-kyong’s ‘Gathering’ explores what museum can become

    The Korea Herald October 30, 2019
    By Shim Woo-hyun Park Chan-kyong’s solo exhibition “Gathering” is an exhibition that explores what art museums can become in the contemporary world with constant man-made...
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  • Two from Korea

    Two from Korea

    Whitehot Magazine September 18, 2018
    By Robert C. Morgan This was my first occasion to experience the work of the Korean artist Park Chan-Kyong (born 1965) who some consider a...
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  • South-North Korea Division, Folk Belief...A Study on ‘Knowing’

    South-North Korea Division, Folk Belief...A Study on ‘Knowing’

    The Korea Daily September 12, 2018
    By Ahyoung Kim 남북 분단, 민간신앙…'아는 것'에 대한 고찰 ( South-North Korea Division, Folk Belief...A Study on ‘Knowing’ )
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  • Park Chan-kyong: Ghosts, history and an Asian sublime

    Park Chan-kyong: Ghosts, history and an Asian sublime

    ArtReview Asia September 1, 2017
    by Aimee Lin The ghosts of history haunt Park Chan-kyong's recent works. Of course this haunting occurs metaphorically. But in Citizen's Forest (2016) the Seoul-based...
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  • No Longer Blacklisted, South Korea’s Park Chan-kyong Tries Again With Horror Film

    No Longer Blacklisted, South Korea’s Park Chan-kyong Tries Again With Horror Film

    Variety July 3, 2017
    By Vivienne Chow After being blacklisted by the government of disgraced former President Park Geun-hye, award-winning South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-kyong said he has resubmitted...
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  • Park Chan-Kyong at Kukje Gallery

    Park Chan-Kyong at Kukje Gallery

    Frieze July 3, 2017
    By Tiffany Yeon Chae As an art critic in the 1990s, Park Chan-kyong would often refer to what he called the ‘colonial unheimlich’, a theory...
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  • The chaos of Korean modernity viewed through shamanism : Artist Park Chan-kyong looks at the modern role of traditional spiritualism

    The chaos of Korean modernity viewed through shamanism : Artist Park Chan-kyong looks at the modern role of traditional spiritualism

    Korea JoongAng Daily June 14, 2017
    By Moon So-Young Visitors to the Kukje Gallery in central Seoul will encounter mysterious, beautiful objects hanging on the walls - a series of colored...
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  • Media artist Park Chan-kyong bids farewell to countless lost souls

    Media artist Park Chan-kyong bids farewell to countless lost souls

    Yonhap News Agency May 25, 2017
    By Woo Jae-yeon SEOUL, May 25 (Yonhap) -- Park Chan-kyong is a younger brother of globally renowned film director Park Chan-wook of 'Old Boy' and...
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