| Title | Baekhwanobang -Beyond today’s situation in which Korean female artists… | |
|---|---|---|
| Link | ||
|
Baekhwanobang or Blooming of one thousand debates - Beyond today’s situation in which Korean female artists reside
Yang Eun-hee (Exhibition organizer / Doctor of Art history)
Today’s contemporary art referred to as the global era represents diversity. Artists use a wide range of materials and techniques ranging from blue jean fabrics to human hair, from oil painting to potteries. Artists from heterogeneous backgrounds from every corner of the world, from New York and Mumbai to Seoul and Rio de Janeiro are carrying out their works with such materials and techniques. Arts created by this way spread before our eyes containing all kinds of forms and contents through exhibitions, great and small, held in many different places such as Biennales, art magazines, auctions, art fairs, warehouses and ateliers of artists. 1) Contemporary art in the global era Analyzing the recent contemporary art, we can largely classify the realm into three despite some differences of regions and artists (Terry Smith, 2009). ① The works have been produced as a response to changing global capitalism aiming at spectacle. Artists of this realm create aesthetics of worldwide trends focused on the so-called “star” artists including Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami. ② The artists of this realm include Alfredo Jaar and Francis Alÿs, who try to explain human circumstances in concrete through concrete themes such as immigration / labor, environment / ecology, technology / media against global aesthetics. ③ This group pursues modest (sometimes passive) works instead of humongous provision of meaning by focusing on individual existence and survival as well as quotidianity and subjectivity. These attitudes are not entirely divided. They are sometimes entangled one another and some mutants negotiating in the halfway point generate. Some artists reflect the weight of art tradition of the cultural world to which they belong, while others reconsider modernism of the last century. In particular, in a country like Korea with traditional culture, we can see some works trying creative approaches connecting traditional cultural heritage with individual dreams and desire, social criticism and global aesthetics. 2) Korean female artists in the global era Inquiries into entangled themes and forms also correspond to female artists. The works of female artists, which have been accumulated for the last 100 years, embracing women’s experiences, awareness of femininity and reflection on social position of women can create more possibilities if many attitudes above mentioned can be put together. The works of women artists are establishing abundant resources based on the variety of arts, from political art, which flourished since feminist art of the 1970s in America to reversal of art language, which has developed focused on the existing male artists. Furthermore, we can measure the infinite possibilities of how female artists, who are born today, can embrace more facets of art if the complex cultural experiences of the global era are added to their conceptualization of works. In other words, we live in the era of absence of sacred ground where any one can jump for the sake of art. Despite this, it is not easy for female artists to experience changes of this kind of environment to the fullest. The situations felt in reality is sharply different from the macroscopic perspective. In particular, it is vital to deeply concern on whether to compete with male artists using the language of contemporary art or creating works considering the essence of women. In particular, it is natural that they have fear of being branded as radical artists insisting the independent territory of women when representing femininity through the works, or the fear of being isolated from the mainstream art world when working only with female artists. Some heavy psychological burden including fear of self-destruction as an artist, when their feminine creation is made under the awareness of man-woman structure making art turn into a political tool criticizing the male-centered system, can attack female artists, even though they know that strategies are necessary to express voices of female artists for feminine language and writing argued by key female philosophers from France such as Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva. However the burden of possible ripple effect and difficulty of communication unsettles them. This character of burden is no exception for female curators including me. Towards which direction and in which space should Korean female artists in the global era carry out their works in today’s circumstances? Today, it is crucial to have introspection on how to display potentials as female artists based on tradition with abundant experiment of themes, forms and materials. We must recognize that almost everything is possible, for instance, introspection on all about women, minimal abstraction, shocking image inversion, contemplation, meditation, behaviorism, reinterpretation of art tradition with imagination, pleasant play, rediscovery of landscape and still life, borrowing and pastiche of nature (Sansu) and Sagunja (plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo). In many cases, female artists are discouraged while going through strict self-censorship and distressing creation process in the middle of the psychological and social mechanism. It is fundamental to overcome frustration and carry on with creation as an uplifting and high-spirited daily life. Looking at global female artists, carrying out their active works these days, I see that they have more hope than fear of a sense of burden above mentioned. These female artists create a strong wind of change in the middle of various trends of contemporary art. Women also solve problems considered important by male artists from their stance in a delicate, elaborate and detailed manner, for example, they deal with cultural identity, diversification of media, individual reactions to dynamics of political and social environment, utilization of spectacle and general reflection of human ecology. In this environment, Korean female artists are to participate in the mission of creating global diversity in a more active way. It is more important than ever to carry out works embracing “locational” particularity and environmental specificity of Korea, not only in Korea and Asia, but also towards the whole world. The exhibitions held mainly by female artists of Korea must escape from the conventional past pattern of maintenance based on same discourses, value system and formalism. It is time to discuss complex values for women and values for female artists that cannot be simply defined, as is the case of competition between a yellow-colored flower and a pink-colored flower. It is essential to have a shift in thinking, to be specific, it is important to have the attitude of which doctrinaire acceptance of male-centered art language imported from the West is no longer useful and make an effort of mastering the language and finding the crack of language. The values for women did not exclusively belong to white female women of the West, and Korean women could equally make meaningful production by sharing and discussing. The same way, if Korean female artists can visually interpret new values, this can show possibilities of expanding our horizon of thinking: some discourses or arts do not belong to a certain area or culture, it is no longer an ideology or property owned by a specific group, it can be a vehicle combining various areas in the global era, and it can work as a conceptual system allowing women to understand others from different backgrounds. Such possibilities can be presented if we consider global environment and carry out works that are concrete to time and space of Korea. To review awareness of changes of the time required for female artists of Korea, we will have a look at how the female art world is changing lately. 3) Women in the global era The position of women in the global era has conspicuously changed compared to the past. Not only in America that politicized women issues but also in the Third World, the position of women became solid at a global level. Moreover, even in the most conservative political area, female Prime Ministers and Presidents appeared, while in the cultural arts area, women began to assume the role as art museum directors. Thus, women start to play an active role. Such visible changes lead us to narcissism to such an extent that some insist that feminism, which has insisted rights of woman and womanlike thinking so far, is no longer a concept worthy of notice. Nonetheless, looking into the phenomenon more carefully, we will find out that these visible results are not obtained for free but women in the global era achieved them through fierce competition with men. Moreover, though some symbolic positions belonged to women, this does not necessarily guarantee eternal territory of women. Women in the world are still required to have rights for women and feminine thinking. In some parts, they make an effort to put political changes into practice as they used to do in the past in the ferocious manner. In particular, there are on-going works to look for the achievement of women not from the last century of which feminism fiercely developed mainly in America but also from the generation prior to feminism movement. American feminist artists, who appeared in the 1970s, do not lower their voice despite their old age, and women from the regions other than America are discussing feminism of the global era. Feminism, which has been developing centered on the West and North America, is now diversified spreading to Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the Asian region including South Korea and Taiwan, there are on-going movements to protects rights of Asian women. This movement comes from the awareness of which today is the very moment with desperate need of diversity of thinking reflecting global perspectives of women and it is time to broaden activities through mutual collaborative network with women of the Third World beyond the movement centered on the First World. It is the manifestation of self-awareness of recognizing the necessity of not only pondering over and solving problems of regions to which women belong through global network but also finding a method of practice to create meaningful results while sharing regional assignments. In sum, in this age of which we need an attitude of seeking a variety of regionalized voices while facing concrete problems of each region instead of focusing on pursuit of a huge ideology and phenomenon of how this ideology works, it is unavoidable that discourse, ideas, values and significance remain plural, and heterogeneity is more highlighted than homogeneity. The recent debate on global feminism reflects such changes in the effective manner. Global feminism pays attention to women, who are in the weaker position than men in the course of increasing neoliberalism, and criticized the reality of which young women are used for sex trade and are forced to make money as cabaret dancers or prostitutes in some countries with relatively greater economic abundance (America, Japan), after leaving their small and medium-sized cities of Asia including India. When the Cold War ended, international exchanges based on economic activities began increasing and the resolution of ideological conflicts brought about issues, which have been repressed under ideology such as nation and class. When democracy was identified with the reorganization of neoliberal economic structure and the mood of class of laborers strengthened in the economic activities, women started to be cornered to the poor class in this new competition-based structure. Since the 1990s, cultural theorists such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Arjun Appadurai paid attention to situations of women cornered to the dead zone of economic areas in the front line of globalization. Spivak explains that, unlike the past, “the significant difference (in this era of globalization ) is the use, abuse, participation and the role of women” (Spivak, 1997, p. 92). Like this, globalization leads to deterritorialization allowing free migration regardless of nationality. However, Appadurai insists that, "It is in this fertile ground of deterritorialization, in which money, commodities, and persons are involved in ceaselessly chasing each other around the world” (Appadurai, 1996, p. 38). In front of proliferation of neoliberalism encouraging unlimited competition for obtainment of capital, it is inevitable that women from Korea, other Asian countries and the Third World are placed in the relatively inferior position than others from the West. According to a recent study, the population of poverty reaches up to about 1.3 billion, constituting 70% of women. It is reported that, in Africa and South America with a high level of female population of poverty, a woman makes less than one dollar a day. In the age of which women are located in the position of exploitation and inequality in the wind of changes of politics and economy, there is an increasing strong movement of women trying to establish sisterhood through international relations and inter-institutional cooperation. Also, they intend to improve the ripple effect by making organizations focused on women, setting up intrinsic political purposes and seeking a worldwide network. To establish this network, it is necessary to have “locational feminism” (Friedman, 2001) that is aware of the global environment and moves conscious of time and space of each region. Moreover, with respect to regional issues of race, class, sexuality, religion and nationality, it is crucial to have the attitude of giving different positions among women and accepting the differences. ) Unequal art system Recognizing changes of the new age and detecting the direction of art can be a starting point to expand potentials of artists. The creation started this way is faithfully reflected onto the trends of recent arts mentioned above. However, despite clear visual results produced by women, all creation works of women around the globe are not equally distributed even in the global era represented by diversity. In the global era assuring the environment of exchanging civilization and culture along the route of free trade, art gained freedom of creating and accepting a variety of arts reflecting particularity of each region based on mutual respect. However, there still exists division between mainstream and non-mainstream. We can see that not all arts are equally treated through the distribution amount of artworks in the global art market. Looking into the list of 100 artists, who are well-treated in the recent world art market (Art Culture, Edition of March, 2012), most of artists are from USA, China and main countries of Europe. There are only one artist from each country of Ethiopia, Indonesia and Brazil, but no Korean artist is included in the list. In other words, the art market is not a place to receive artists of contemporary art from every corner of the world based on equality. Not even 10 female artists are included in the list of 100 artists. Besides, these female artists are mostly from the First World such as America and the U.K. Marlene Dumas from South Africa is a female artist, the one and only artist from the nonmainstream region. In sum, we can see that the art market is moving around the First World occupying economic predominance, and male artists or female artists from other regions do not benefit from equality. This is the crude reality. Today, it is urgent that alternative art mechanism should play a role since we live in the reality of which the biased practice of art market fails to correctly reflect a variety of arts in the global era. In particular, it is important that Biennales demanding immense national budget and art magazines pursuing neutralism of press must play a role in criticizing and checking (controlling) the art market, instead of only accompanying it. Fortunately, Biennales from home and abroad relatively invite artists that the art market disregard and the number of female artists is gradually on the rise. This checking function can be possible because curators have firm awareness of functions and roles of art while coping with commercial logics in an appropriate manner. Howerver, except a special case like International Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, female artists in Biennales fail to reach 30% (since Gwangju Biennale is composed of all female curators, we are curious about the percentage of female artists). Complete manifestation of diversity is still nothing but a motto aimed by artists but not the reality of artists. Even if the environment meets solution to art production at the individual level and self-realization of artists and creation works of women can be made, all efforts will be only “half” success unless there is a system to exhibit such works. Despite all types of exhibitions such as solo exhibitions, group exhibitions, Art fairs and Biennales, if no opportunity is given to female artists, their creation works end in vain without obtaining the meaning and will remain in their ateliers. Here, there is the need to set up a system for women artists. It is vital to seek various ways of manifestation of creativity through activities based on not only the previous systems but also new individual and group actions. Equally, it is important to make an effort to critically respond o unsatisfactory systems and create new spaces. For this reason, we still need exhibitions organized by women artists. In particular, unlike the past days, it is urgent to have the environment of displaying each one’s competency and opportunities of exhibitions. Like this exhibition, it is required to encourage creative activities one another through enhanced information exchanges and network by gatherings of female artists and promote motivations of exposing works that are more experimental. It is necessary to maintain tension to escape from the frame of monotone and repetition and embrace experimental spirit at the boundary between concept and form. 5) Baekhwanobang or Blooming of one thousand debates The theme of this exhibition is based on “women’s voice (s) created by Korean women overcoming unequal reality in the global era based on diversity.” Paying attention to “diverse voices of women,” this exhibition is entitled “Baekhwanobang or Blooming of one thousand debates.” “Baekhwanobang” means that one hundred types of flowers boast of its respective splendor and compete one another. This expression dates back to the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, when a variety of schools exchanged debates covering Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and Legalism (Fajia), leading to combination of Chinese wisdom and maturity of thoughts. Art in the global era is expressed in different voices and gestures in the middle of competition, this phenomenon can be compared with the situation of the ancient time of China, the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period. In the similar context, Korean female artists are required to have the attitude of speaking out discomfort, showing anger, finding consolation with colleagues and expressing the sound coming from within, instead of being discouraged or dispirited by uncomfortable truth inflicted on women. They all need courage enough to broaden scope of works through self-reflection, cross the territory of creativity with freedom while breaking new ground. The period of which complex thoughts compete in a close match is the age of confusion yet the age of opportunities. In particular, posterior to postmodernism in which contemporary art originated in Europe started to feel tired, contemporary art appeared in new cultural regions enriches the essence. Lately, a great deal of female artists started to come into being from the regions, which had been overlooked in the map of art such as Iran and India. It is time for Korean woman artists to reveal their thinking and wisdom with courage and debate and prove how they grow as female artists of the global era. If female artists perfect their works and spend some time of patience of creation based on the themes and key words mentioned above, and secure their exhibition opportunities through community activities, I am convinced that the age of “blooming of one hundred flowers” showing competency of each one of one hundred flowers will definitely come after the period of this confusion. |