2023 ARKO Art Center Invitational Exhibition Nho Wonhee: You were there

• Artist : Nho Wonhee
• Period : August 11 – Nomeber 19, 2023
• Opening Hours : Tue – Sat, 11am – 7pm(Closed on Mondays and Korean Thanksgiving Day)
• Venue : ARKO Art Center, Gallery 1, 2
• Admission : Free
• Host : Arts Council Korea

2023 ARKO Art Center Invitational Exhibition—which seeks to encourage mid-career and earlier generations of artists to produce new works, support their artistic pursuits, and highlight their oeuvres—presents a solo exhibition by Nho Wonhee (b. 1948). Nho embarked on her creative journey in 1977 when she held her first solo show. She was also a founding member of Reality and Utterance, a small art group movement that began in 1980.

The group’s inaugural exhibition, Reality and Utterance, was scheduled to be held at the Misul hoegwan (now ARKO Art Center) in 1980; however, it was canceled because the show was considered overly political in the conservative social atmosphere of the time. ARKO Art Center, which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary, has invited Nho to put on a solo exhibition to reflect on her history as an artist from a contemporary perspective and carefully trace her outlook on individuals and society through her many years of artistic practice.

Nho Wonhee: You were there consists of approximately 130 artworks and archive materials that exemplify her career as an artist, including her paintings from the 1980s, new paintings, large-scale fabric paintings, participatory artworks, and illustrations from a novel serialized in a newspaper. Her work is often associated with the terms, Minjung Art (People's Art), Busan Figurative Art, and Critical Realism. However, when examining her creative journey, one discovers aspects that cannot be completely explained with reference to any specific movement or the existing vocabulary of art history. When following her speaking with wordless painting, her empathy and compassion for human beings and the world, and her attitude towards reality and history, one encounters the psychological figuration of the era, which the artist senses and recognizes through her brushstrokes. Therefore, this exhibition serves as an opportunity to examine Nho’s artistic endeavors to document the personal and social aspects of human affairs that she has witnessed and undergone as an artist and a human being, which she expresses through the visual language of painting.

Nho’s work testifies to the social circumstances and psychological hardships that individuals and communities have been subjected to. Beginning in the 1980s, which was marked by the tension between intensifying political repression and the growth of the pro-democracy movement, Nho dedicated herself to recording the zeitgeist of the time. After the front lines of the social movement collapsed, politico-social disorder and structural violence in the capitalist society cast shadows over everyday life that appeared calm. Society subsequently transitioned into an era where inequality, contradiction, and alienation penetrated deep into personal life. Facing reality, Nho strived to contemplate the systemic paradox between society and human conditions. Her artistic practice is about understanding reality in detail and communicating it through the language of painting. It is also related to her determination to document the real world in a composed manner with an awareness of history, which is her way, as a critical realist, of examining the true shape of reality detached from the conventional veneer of truth. For those who can only vaguely recognize the structures of the cleverly obscured repression and violence generated by the real-world micropolitics that surrounds them, Nho’s work provides a clear vision for seeing reality as it is, as it serves as a window onto the truth beyond reality.

This exhibition is structured to reveal her utterances and determination to address social issues at the intersection between the public and private sectors. Gallery 1 presents Nho’s new works that focus on industrial disasters caused by the structural problems of Korean capitalism and the resulting suffering of individuals. These works are an extension of her portrayals of workers and state power that she began in the 1980s. These stories of victims develop into narratives about young people, workers, and protesters whose dignity is repeatedly threatened in the current era. Gallery 2 attends to the artist’s interest in female narratives, which she has had first-hand experience of. These narratives deal with the violence and repression that permeate everyday life and private spaces, as well as the artist’s meditation on the shared story of humankind. The social oppression and alienation that infiltrate one’s life and places like the home and the kitchen confront the individual and make them aware that personal spaces are social spaces and sites of political resistance.

The artist aims to transcend simple representations to visualize underlying personal and social circumstances. In this way, the exhibition allows audiences to discover images of solidarity painted by social others and beings through the portrayals of labor and body concealed behind public and private sectors. The exhibition title, “You were there”1) speaks to alienated members of society. This phrase, which directly addresses the listener recognizes the person’s place and has the potential to develop into a dialogue. It prompts a conversation and foreshadows a story that will follow. Social changes begin when one stands in solidarity with those suffering and acknowledges their place in society by calling their names. This is the power of “images and words” that Nho strives for.

1) The phrase "You were there" is from Nho's artist statement. She quotes the line "You're still there, huh?" from the film The Last Waltz (1978), uttered by a band member to someone in the audience after the band's final performance finishes and the curtain closes. The artist rewrote this line as "You're not there," reflecting that Reality and Utterance is now part of the history of a bygone era—that is, it is part of the historical record. It also indicates that the meaning of their manifesto has changed. The exhibition title, "You were there," reflects one's personal place called upon in Nho's painting and the time when human life continues, representing the arrival of the next society that one is dreaming of.

▣ About the Sections

In the 1980s, social movements in Korea developed into a transformative national movement known as the minjung movement, which sought to contemplate human life comprehensively. Vigorous popular resistance succeeded in restoring the political freedom that had been taken away during the years of military dictatorship. However, people’s interest in the macro narrative—the force behind the national cultural movement of the 1980s—soon dissipated. By the 1990s, the front lines of artistic and cultural resistance had collapsed, and post-modernism was introduced from the West, giving birth to the culture of a new generation that was characterized as trendy. Indeed, this new lifestyle did not carry on the critical and ethical prospects of the cultural movement of the 1980s. In this drastically altered world, Minjung artists wandered in agony, attempting to overcome their inner turmoil. They strived to draw attention to unstable socio-cultural conditions and forge a new path.

Nho, meanwhile, was more concerned with expressing the social contradictions that ruled the lives of individuals than with presenting new visions or incorporating the recently developed vocabulary of media art. As an artist who was a witness to turbulent times, she recognized ongoing changes and incorporated them into her canvases. Her paintings reveal the conditions of severance, transition, and progress, which characterize the end of an era, and reorganize its remainders into a new form. The heavy atmosphere and sense of absence in her work come from looking back on the past and facing the current state of society to unveil the external wound that reality carries.

Nho’s paintings reveal a determination to convey the political circumstances of Korean society. White squares and the marks of erased writing in her paintings appear as fragments of the real world, evoking experiences shared by community members. The contradictions of Korean society become more transparent in moments of tragedy, such as the ongoing Ssangyong Motors strike for the reinstatement of dismissed workers that began in 2009, the Sinking of the MV Sewol in 2014, and the South Korean political scandal of 2016. These incidents have cut deep into the lives of individuals and communities. After devastating events, people’s perceptions often shift or transform, resulting in a new kind of willpower manifested in different times and spaces. Nho created a stage performance with surreal atmospheres that evokes past moments in history by portraying officials discussing matters privately to deflect blame, as well as demonstrators looking somber in the city center. Nho’s paintings also feature protests held by the direct victims of these incidents. These people survived past disasters and gradually formed bonds of solidarity with others affected by social tragedies. Layers painted in pale colors, brushstrokes with different thicknesses, painstakingly depicted figures, written messages, and people’s silhouetted gestures add depth to the two-dimensional surface of her paintings, evoking the weight of existence felt by the communities and individuals.

Industrial disasters are events that reveal underlying labor conditions and the disregard for human dignity under capitalism. Nho’s series of works on this topic relates the real stories of individuals told by mass media outlets—such as newspapers and news media shows—and closely documents the lives of these individuals who are also citizens, students, and workers who have been injured or deceased in industrial accidents. Contemporary citizens spend each day ensuring that their bodies conform to the demands of the capitalist labor system. However, these bodies caught in the economic system are barely visible in everyday life. Industrial disasters leave clear marks that lay behind the fantasy that the capitalist system provides; this discrepancy becomes conspicuous through countless reports of disablement and deaths. Through its engagement with the suffering bodies and testimonies of survivors, Nho’s series presents a clear image of the distorted labor market, which is characterized by subcontracting and outsourced labor. In Dressing Them in Civilian Clothes (2023), victims of recent industrial disasters—such as the Guui Station accident, the Taean Power Plant tragedy, the fatal sauce mixer accident at an SPC Group factory, and the construction site accident at an Anseong warehouse—appear to move as if they are shadows. In her previous works, Nho has employed white squares as spoken words. In Dressing Them in Civilian Clothes (2023) and Large Corporation (2023), however, Nho attaches thin fabric squares to the canvas like sticky notes. While the white squares divide space and represent a silent speech, the fabric squares that are attached on the surface, in contrast, are inscribed with the testimonies of industrial disaster victims, reinforcing their function of conveying a message, of speaking. Tower (2023) utilizes a photograph taken during the Vietnam War that was circulated among the South Korean Marine Corps internet community. The nation took advantage of the Vietnam War as a chance to further modernize the country and increase its financial assets. South Korea’s intention to build its wealth through government intervention reveals the cutthroat nature of capitalism. In the painting, Nho overlaps the solid bodies of war veterans with the feeble bodies of industrial disaster victims. The tower made of bodies with prosthetic arms and legs precariously sustaining each other, represents the conflicting reality of Korean industrial labor.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis transitioned the nation into a new era of neorealism where financial accumulation dictated society and ate away at daily life. Nho expresses her skepticism of the life model that encourages self-improvement and ruthless competition after the Asian crisis through the paintings, Please Do Not Take a Nap (2005) and Mind Your Own Business (2015). These notes on society predate in Morning Workout (1999) where she depicts the social trend to build healthy bodies in pursuit of new concepts of “well-being.” In 2023, Nho also painted a variation of the 1999 painting, Morning Workout 2023 (2023), which reflected people’s living conditions surrounded by fine dust pollution. Even though today’s young generation is considered to have the potential to lead their communities to a better future, their lives are, in fact, subjected to an extreme trial of survival of the fittest. People Having Ramen (2002) is like a moment of déjà vu portraying young, fatigued people. These worn-out people reappear in Backpack Packed with Instant Ramen (2016), through the example of Mr. Kim, a nineteen-year-old man who died when he was crushed between the screen doors at Guui Station in 2016, and in Spring of Youth (2003), where people are finally given the opportunity to sleep and dream—something that they, and many others, had long yearned for.

At a time when a whirlwind of high-profile events had urged South Korean society to be more aware of gender issues, Nho had an awakening as a woman and became more inclined to female narratives. Witnessing the politics of violence and repression that permeate daily life and the private sphere, Nho reflected on her concerns and anxiety regarding social conditions and future generations. Her works dealing with women’s personal stories raise questions about the social and cultural norms of a male-centered society. Her works that are based on the stories she encounters in the media—such as stories about immigrant women, and those abused by their Vietnam War-veteran husbands who suffer from defoliant exposure—confirm that women’s rights are closely entwined with political and social issues. A female’s work—which is the sustaining force of social reproduction—tends to be invisible or easily dismissed as a taken-for-granted part of life. Old Household Goods (2001) features an individual balancing on top of household objects, a metaphor for the pressure the artist feels regarding housework. Taking up a Weapon (2018) was inspired by the “Wages for Housework campaign” led by American feminist movements in the 1970s. Nho’s work depicting women protesters holding household objects as if they were weapons is meant to represent the women supporting the Korean #MeToo Movement at the time.

Archive

The archive section presents documents representing the career and thoughts of Nho Wonhee, who is an artist, educator, and former member of the group Reality and Utterance. This section features catalogs for Nho’s first solo exhibition at Munheon Gallery in 1977 and the inaugural exhibitions of Reality and Utterance at Misul hoegwan and DongSanBang Gallery, along with photographs of the Reality and Utterance members. Also on display is a document of the Reality and Utterance workshop on the art of third-world countries and happiness; a leaflet and photographs from her solo exhibition held at Geurim Madang Min in 1986 amidst the ongoing fierce popular resistance against President Chun Doo-hwan; a statement demanding the reversal of the dismissal of her fellow professor who participated in a collective declaration on the then current government, as well as the democratization of educational institutions; and a newspaper article on the punishment of students who participated in the May 3 Dong-Eui University Incident and the dismissal of professors who supported them. Furthermore, Nho’s writings about communicating with the public and her political arguments about activist art in public enable audiences to better understand her aspirations as an artist and the foundational ideas of her practice.

In Nho’s paintings, there are a plethora of human bodies of various shapes making a variety of poses. She took photographs of her family members and herself to study the human body. Some of these photographs are featured in this section, providing a glimpse into the artist’s painting process. These photographs reveal the joy of artmaking and daily living.

Illustrations for Princess Bari, a novel serialized in the newspaper

This exhibition features a scrapbook of newspaper cut-outs and original illustrations by Nho Wonhee for the novel, Princess Bari. Written by Hwang Sok-yong, this piece was serialized in the newspaper, Hankyoreh, from January 3 to June 20, 2007. Nho drew an illustration daily for the series while it was being written, and completed the final 121st painting to correspond with the final installment in the story. Her illustrations that accompanied Hwang’s distinctive descriptions of crossing between reality and fantasy present unusual and surreal sights. Nho’s painting for the 105th installment portrays Ali, Bari’s husband, who is lost in Bari’s dream, curled up inside a crate resembling a chicken coop. This character’s pose became the starting point for another series titled Body. Nho’s paintings for Princess Bari are technically distinctive from her usual works, but her thematic interest in individual lives persists in the narrative of Bari, living her eternal life solemnly and diligently.

▣ Exhibition view

▣ About the Artist

Nho Wonhee was born in Daegu, Gyeonsangbuk-do in 1948 and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree in painting at the College of Fine Art, Seoul National University. She held her first solo exhibition at Munheon Gallery in 1977. As a founding member of Reality and Utterance, she participated in various group exhibitions until the group disbanded in 1990. From 1982 to 2013, Nho remained active as an artist while also serving as an educator, holding a professorship at Dong-Eui University in Busan. Nho’s painting captures the psychological landscape of how society, politics, and culture are shaped through the individual’s and communities’ perception of history and reality that shifts over time. She has held seventeen solo exhibitions, including On Thin Land (Hakgojae, 2019), Documentary Persistence: Human Affairs, Ways of Living, and Crisis (Art Space Pool, 2017), Remaining Scenery: Nho Wonhee, After 1991 (Moonshin Museum of Art at Sookmyung Women’s University, 2006), and an exhibition at Geurim Madang Min in 1986. Her group exhibitions include Minimalism-Maximalism-Mechanissmmm Act 1–Act 4 (Art Sonje Center, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, 2022–2023), 2020 Busan Biennale: Words at an Exhibition – an exhibition in ten chapters and five poems (Museum of Contemporary Art,Busan, 2020), Art and Words 2020 (Hakgojae, 2020), Awakening: Art in Society in Asia, 1960s–1990s (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, 2019), From Vietnam to Berlin (Asia Culture Center Creation, 2018), Art Toward Society: Realism in Korean Art 1945–2005 (Fuchu Art Museum, Otani Memorial Art Museum, Miyakonojo City Museum of Art, 2007–2008), Women’s Art Festival 99: Patjis on Parade (Seoul Arts Center, 1999), Gwangju Biennale Special Exhibition – The Spirit of Gwangju Resistance in May (Gwangju Museum of Art, 1995), and The 15 Years of Korean Minjoong Art: 1980–1994 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, 1994).

• Audio Docent (English) : GO
• Leaflet(English) : GO

자료담당자[기준일(2023.8.10.)] : 미술관운영부 노해나 02-760-4607
게시기간 : 23.8.10. ~