By Park Han-sol 박한솔
The very first work to greet visitors at the ARKO Art Center is a black-and-white photograph, an iconic still from Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 cult thriller “Reservoir Dogs.”
At a glance, the image rings with familiarity. But a closer look reveals something uncanny: each of the five suited men bears the same face.
In “Who am I 10,” Kang Hong-goo Photoshops his own likeness onto this band of thieves — figures nameless, materialistic and doomed to ruin. The gesture becomes both parody and confession. By inserting himself directly into their image, he transforms the cinematic frame into a kind of a mirror, reflecting both his own contradictions and his place as an artist.
“There’s a certain cinematic fantasy we all carry — that petty, shallow desire to live as the hero of a film,” the 69-year-old told The Korea Times. “That temptation exists in everyone. I wanted to see how it takes shape in me.”
It is in this spirit that Kang long ago departed from the rigid grammar of straight photography, a genre he calls “overly formulaic.” Instead, he stages deliberate interventions through Photoshopping, hand-coloring and image compositing to disrupt the photography’s promise of “unmediated truth.” His images thus open into a critical gaze, exposing the realities that lie concealed beneath.
Nayoungim & Gregory Maass / Installation view of "Undoing Oneself" at ARKO Art Center in Seoul / Courtesy of ARKO Art Center
Kang is one of five mid-career artists and collectives — alongside Nayoungim & Gregory Maass, Kim Ok-sun, Kim Ji-pyeong and Ha Cha-youn — gracing the ARKO Art Center’s new group exhibition.
At “Undoing Oneself,” each creative poses the primal question through the medium to which they have devoted decades: Who am I? Their works invite viewers to trace the unfolding dynamics of self-statement and self-critique, articulated in forms at once intimate, whimsical and unflinching.
“There’s a certain cinematic fantasy we all carry — that petty, shallow desire to live as the hero of a film,” the 69-year-old told The Korea Times. “That temptation exists in everyone. I wanted to see how it takes shape in me.”
It is in this spirit that Kang long ago departed from the rigid grammar of straight photography, a genre he calls “overly formulaic.” Instead, he stages deliberate interventions through Photoshopping, hand-coloring and image compositing to disrupt the photography’s promise of “unmediated truth.” His images thus open into a critical gaze, exposing the realities that lie concealed beneath.
Kang is one of five mid-career artists and collectives — alongside Nayoungim & Gregory Maass, Kim Ok-sun, Kim Ji-pyeong and Ha Cha-youn — gracing the ARKO Art Center’s new group exhibition.
At “Undoing Oneself,” each creative poses the primal question through the medium to which they have devoted decades: Who am I? Their works invite viewers to trace the unfolding dynamics of self-statement and self-critique, articulated in forms at once intimate, whimsical and unflinching.
The questions Kim Ok-sun poses become both a way of understanding her own being and a journey that extends outward toward others.
Beginning with those closest to her — her own family — Kim gradually widens her lens to marriage migrants, multicultural youth and other displaced communities, composing their photographs as a constellation of personal and collective narratives.
In her oeuvre, “home” is not a destination to which one returns, but an origin that is continually reshaped.
In a different register, Ha turns her gaze to the struggles of immigrants, the homeless and refugees within the shifting terrain of Europe’s political climate — echoing her own artistic life, lived in a state of constant motion since her move to France in 1983.
“Undoing Oneself” runs through Oct. 26 at ARKO Art Center.
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