Kwangsu Oh (Critic)

 

Kukjin Kang’s introduction onto the art scene is said to be marked with his first involvement in a coterie group and its launching of a landmark exhibition. The coterie was named ‘Noncol’ consisting of Hongik University graduates in 1965. They were likes of Chanseung Jung, Inhwan Kim, Youngsub Han, Younghee Nam, Taeshin Choi, Chulmo Yang and Kang himself. The inception of the group came along as they more than often gathered to investigate and craft their spirit for art and running a collective production association.
To say a little about the name, it came from the crematory site in a place called Hongjedong near Muakjae. And, about the life in the art world they cultivated was more than just a result of collection of youthful spirits; the fact that those young university graduates, fresh out of college, decided to share their life space together and work simultaneously as a group tells us about the existence of the common denominator of artistic consciousness. I myself sometimes found myself listening to their extraordinary conversations around a drinking table. Such talks were far from process towards conclusions; instead, they were occasions for reckless outpouring of urge and desire, which frequently resulted in quarrelsome arguments caused by clashes of multifarious opinions. And this is how the group was born.
The founding exhibition of the group was held at ‘Seoul shinmun hwaegwan’ (Seoul press hall) in February 1965. Their spontaneous publication of the country’s first coterie magazine Noncol Art was also functioned as the exhibition catalogue. Looking into the magazine slash catalogue material, one cannot help but to concentrate on their seemingly abstract, but ambitious lines of proclamation, shown in full below:

 

We as a group hold our flagship of formative freedom, accepting no compromise with the established norms. First, we as a group entering the era of new generation hold as precondition of our formative basis ‘consciousness amongst freedom’. Second, it is our ethics of working to employ the most extreme version of creative transitions of temporal capacity. Lastly, we as a group pursue the morale of creation which shall only be based on intelligence and sound mentality and render ourselves out of the reckless sensibility of the reestablished regime of art and society.

 

The exhibition included 6 of Kang’s works, all named Work. He stated publicly at the time about his work that what must be built onto the canvas were the emotional discrepancies of human processed through accented lines, heated surface of canvas and boiling passion coming from symbolized figured exploding through the world of negativity. Despite unrefinedness of his words, the statement nailed the purpose of description of his own work. This is self-evident in his relatively accurate statement that the screen itself contributed in giving the explosive impression of linearity and showing its progressively opportunistic tendencies. Their second exhibition a year after also featured works in similar contexts, but with more refined, simplified composition of linearity and softer tones. The second exhibition was to be the last of Noncol group since the group members dissipated to other areas of investigation, rendering the coterie split and non-functional.

 

But the new version of group effort was on its way: Kang, Chanseung Jung and Inhwan Kim from ‘Noncol’ gathered another radical artist association named ‘Shin Jun’ (New Exhibition) Coterie, later on crafting another landmark exhibition ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipjun’ in 1967. The group was gathered for the exhibition and included other non-Noncol members Duksoo Yang, Kangja Jung and Sunhee Shim. ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipjun’ was basically a synthesized exhibition featuring two other groups of ‘Mu’ (Zero) and ‘Origin, both consisting of members who were Hongik University graduates from the class of 1963 and 1964, respectively. ‘Mu’ group had as members Boonghyun Choi, Youngja Kim, Taehyun Lee, Bokchul Moon, Dan Lim (Myungjin Lim) and Iksang Jin. ‘Origin’ consisted of Myungyoung Choi, Seungwon Seo, Seungjo Lee, Sooik Kim, Kiok Shin, Changhong Choi, Sangrak Lee, Jongsub Ham. The group held their collective exhibitions starting in 1962 with their first, their second under banner of experimentation of Modern art, and their third for ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipjun’
Of the members, Dan Lim and Iksang Jin were non-Hongik graduates, but were nevertheless actively involved in organizing ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipjun’. Lim was in fact a quite well-known nationally appointed diplomat and had intimate philosophical connection with the others, thereby being accepted, whereas Jin participated and later became a member as an avant-garde musician. As for ‘Shin Jun’, Kang and Chanseung Jung were not from the same class of graduation as Kangja Jung and Sunhee Shim, but notwithstanding such difference they clicked together with their experimental minds.
To go further into the groundbreaking ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipjun’, it was a major watershed during the era that was oversaturated with Abstract Expressionism. They had a strong desire to feel and embody the advent of the new world of Modern art by exploiting various modes of expression such as street marching, happening, seminar formats and other event-types of shows. ‘World art movement after Abstract Art’, a seminar held at? the projection room of ‘Joong Ang gongbokwan’ (Joong Ang Public Information Center) with invited lecturers such as Il Lee, Hoon Kim and Myungjin Kim, was also one of the major crafts of their times. Moreover, a street demonstrations was performed prior to the exhibition at the ‘Joong Ang gongbokwan’, marching with slogans of various messages around Sogongdong and through Taepyungno, Kwanghwamoon, Chongno, Chungmooro and Myungdong (all being the largest and the busiest streets in the country). The demonstration can be interpreted as part of social participation, but even more appropriately a protestation against the institutionalized art world. The content of slogans they raised were extremely critical towards the regime in art the established factions had built, saying ‘National exhibitions for the seated’, ‘A country without a Modern Museum’, ‘Artists in action’ or ‘Works of post-abstract era’, pointing at the contemporary circumstances of Korea without a comprehensive and up-to-date cultural policies in place.
The slogans put out exactly what they wanted to proclaim: they seek the deepest answers to the most fundamental questions having successfully eschewed the contagious reality. The public assessment in general was mostly that their happenings were taken as the artists’ natural predisposition gestures.
One of these well-known gestures was Happening with vinyl umbrella and candle light for which I wrote the scenario by ‘Shin Jun’ group’s request. The performance portrayed and presented various aspects of modern life and symbols of critical nature of the participants: vinyl umbrella for metaphorical display of modern material-based cultures, lit candle to make a stark contrast of two polarized ends of spirituality, and the deed of stamping down the umbrella for their strong disagreement with the contemporary civilization. It was the first of its kind in the country, although the word happening had been known through the means of foreign magazines or news. This particular piece that featured ‘deeds’ instead of something generally regarded more tangible, became a major talking point in the art world. But the original purpose of the show cannot be seen as a mere show for showing but as a facet of their fierce consciousness to express their antagonism. It should further be viewed as a transitional phenomenon in the form of theater performance of artists, logically and decisively crafted for a clear objective.
The young generation of the 60s’ artists was considered the starting runner of a dramatic change in perception of art, espousing a new era of new art, not that of the established convention. I cannot recall all individual pieces and performances. But what is still alive in my memory is that Origin group mainly dealt with geometrical and visual abstracts, and ‘Mu’ and ‘Shin Jun’ dealt with Neo-dada or Nouveau Realism. Amongst the multifarious sorts, Kang exhibited viscous watercolors were made to ascend and descend inside a two-layered vinyl tube-cover, and another one for which he stacked up glasses and glass bottles. As far as my understanding goes, those were mainly to reflect their desire to blur the virtual boundaries between making of art and reality, considering its similarities with current works.
Despite all the attention to the groundbreaking thinking and work ethics, ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipjun’ never carried on to the next. But the group named ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipwhae’ (Association of young artist’s union) formed by ‘Mu’ and’ Shin Jun’ group went on to do more performances and Modern art seminars. This proves that it is rational to consider the ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipwhae’ (1967-69) was more of a transitional thing as much as their high morale to inversely relate their work ethics to the conventional art and realism.
Kang’s part in these events and later development can be most effectively shown through his active participation in performance or happening art. For example, his work in the performance Festival of Colored Vinyl as well as Transparent balloon and Nude at ‘C’est si bon’ music hall (both in 1968), and Murder at Han riverside later that year at the bank of Han river of Seoul, for all three of which he composed repertoires and performances. At the time of working on these works, Kang stayed in close contact with Chanseung Jung and Kangja Jung, and Kang participated in most of performances organized to be shown to public from 1967 to 1968, the most important period to be looked at concerning this particular kind of art.?
Coming into the 70s, the basic form of performance went through a gradual change, different in many aspects from the initial stage which was dominated by situational interpretations of the society and their ideological resistance towards the established factions of the art world as well as the basic ideologies of the government. In other words, it was easier for them to display and disseminate their ideas through performances or other kinds of perfect (and perhaps better) substitutes for canvas; it was more directive and eye-catching. Compared to this, the works in the 70s can be viewed as more conceptual and smoothed out.
Kang and Jung were at the center of making of underground experimental art. The socio-political climate then was the predominant subject of confrontation for them, and it was only inevitable and foreseen that ‘The 4th Group’, led by Kang and Jung in the 70s, received governmental disciplinary actions.
The history of the underground art going face to face (or incognito) with government actually began to emerge during the late 60s when the Kang, Chanseung Jung and Kangja Jung performed Murder at Han riverside which marked a milestone in Korean art history concerning the fact that the scene of act was moved to outside environment from interior spaces and took a hard-line against the established art world by denoting the hypocrites, pseudo-artists, charlatans, shirkers, artists of political purposes, acrobatics (artists who availed on themselves of contemporary art) and those so-called art-blinds. They showed their antagonism by burying themselves at the bank of the river to denote their deaths.
Between the above period of performance activities and his personal exhibition in Myungdong in 1973, there exist insufficient records or evidence as to Kang’s personal life and shows. One can only remember his working on mechanical objectives searching around in Myungdong stores. This particular period of his life was to attain ideas about new personal challenges and his future paths of developments, namely the establishment of A.G in 1969 following the milestone ‘Chungnyun jakka yeunlipjun’ which affected the whole Modern art communities.
Quickly merging at the time was the conceptual art and Minimalism, and Kang had at least a marginal consensus of opinion with such trend. Interrelation of Forms, his personal exhibition in 1973, featured his 3-D arts which appeared more personal yet also reminiscent of his still on-going experimental tendency, circumstantial variableness and well-groomedness. These works was less about merely looking more professional than showing comparison of different physical properties of raw parts; basic cloths, rope, coarse ropes, corrugated paperboards, Korean traditional paper made from mulberry trees etc.
This flow of conceptualism continued to another exhibition ‘Independent’ at the National Museum of Modern Art in 1973 and 74, a national-level exhibition with large publicity and main stage of various experiments. The exhibition as I remember enjoyed high popularity primarily because of its liberated non-tapis format what involves no pre-consideration for presentation. Kang displayed on the floor a sleeper cover-wrapped by a large piece of cloth and corded with a rope. The material-circumstance relationship could be easily detected as it did several years before.

 

During this time Kang also ran a printmaking workshop near Hongik University in Hapjungdong to which I was one of the frequent visitors alongside with Chanseung and Kulim Kim. It was for both his personal working and giving printmaking lessons. His affection for printmaking stayed on as he also carried on working on oil paintings. Later on in the early 70s, he held various international exhibitions such as ‘Korea-America Print exchange exhibition’ in LA, ‘Print exhibition on tour’, ‘Korea-China modern print exhibition’. In 1974, he also got together with the former ‘Mu’ and ‘Shin Jun’ group members as well as others in his surroundings to form a new group called ‘Muhandae’ (Infinity) whose activities were disappointingly timid. Another major exhibition he was involved in was ‘Seoul Bangbub Jun’ (Seoul Exhibition of Method)