The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia, 1996 : Report

A professor at the Painting Department of Mok Won College, Kim Hong-Joo is concerned with the social function of art, especially in the context of contemporary Korean society, where Western culture is becoming increasingly intrusive and traditional Korean values potentially eroded. Talking about traditional customs and rituals, the artist remembers: Back when I was very small , on my birthday, my parents wrote something on paper and burnt it, and made me eat it. I think it was some sort of a secret shamanistic prescription for my future. A viewer not familiar with Korean script would see Kim Hong-Joe's paintings as calligraphic scrolls; however, in reality, they are landscapes created with pseudo­ lettering and other additional elements. The artist refers to his works as 'character­ pictures' and says: I borrowed the painting style from my private experiences of Korean cultural environment, and I have chosen the images of letter shapes in relation to the above. This work was made in the hope that it would not be seen as either a traditional calligraphy piece or as conforming to the current art trends. Kim Jeon, originally a painter, has been experimenting for several years with ways of challenging the notion of painting as a purely two-dimensional medium. His most recent work consists of padded, cushion-like objects which are considered to be modified versions of a canvas. These objects, made of foam and fabric, are in the shape of arms. The stapling of these soft materials to the hard backing board may allude to violence. The artist tantalises our imagination by applying tattoos to the surface of the work using a needle. Kim Myung-Hye creates instal lations with everyday objects to reveal paradoxical aspects of life in contemporary society. Her work Driving up to the limits includes an electronic departure board which features Korean slogans about development and globalisation, as well as economic statistics. The artist says about the work: In front of the departure board are installations of a pole vault and a limbo stick. In both installations a bar is used to signify socially constructed limits 8