LACMA

Feature 3 And what is their situation today? Against all odds, given the devastation and schism in the country, over time South Korea transformed itself into an economic powerhouse. The so-called miracle on the Han, which had its heyday in the 1960s and '70s, was realized with great ingenuity and very hard work on the part of the Korean people, but political stability was difficult to achieve. The Seoul Olympics, held in 1988, which brought many foreigners to Korea and offered the country an important opportunity to display its economic successes, also played a significant role in increasing freedoms there. You and your co-curator Christine Starkman chose twelve artists for this show—some very well known, like Do Ho Suh, and others still relatively unknown. What connects them? Having all been born between 1957 and 1972, these twelve artists came of age amid political turmoil and increased freedoms. Some of them spent years abroad and then returned home; one came to Korea from the United States and has stayed for an extended period; others live primarily in Europe or the United States. Yet wherever they are at any given moment, they are keenly aware of their position as citizens of a relatively small, increasingly prosperous but divided country in a rapidly globalizing environment. Your Bright Future 12 Contemporary Artists From Korea Bahc Yiso, Your Bright Future, 2002, courtesy of the estate of the artist, © Yiso Sarangbang, Seoul What role has the country's social and political turmoil played in the development of the contem- porary art scene in Korea? Korea's relatively late arrival on the international art scene can be explained in part by its difficult history. In the twentieth century alone, its people suffered a brutal Japanese occupation that lasted forty years, the division of the country at the 38th parallel, and from 1950 to 1953 the Korean War, which involved the Com- munist and capitalist superpowers. The civilian death toll at the end of the war exceeded two million. Yet the title of the exhibition is particularly optimistic. Your Bright Future is the title of a sculpture by Bahc Yiso, in which eight bright lights, augmented by reflectors and connected by a flimsy wooden structure, face upward, shining on a large white wall. The lights are anthropomorphic, recalling a crowd basking in the glory of a charismatic leader. This might be an inno- cent scenario, or the crowd could be in thrall to a diabolical presence. Similarly double-edged, the title suggests a genuinely hopeful outlook, as well as the clumsy obviousness of North Korean propa- ganda. It carries with it the ambivalence—and irony— with which many South Koreans seem to view their situation. For the first time in nearly two decades, contemporary Korean art is being explored in a major U.s. exhibi- tion—LACMA's "Your Bright Future." Here, the exhibition's co-curator, Lynn Zelevansky, talks about Korea's his- tory, three artists in the exhibition with site-specific work, and one theme to keep an eye out for. It's been almost twenty years since the last exhibition of contemporary Korean art in the u.s. Why has it taken so long to be recognized when the art market has paid great attention to work from Japan and China over the last decade? The reception of contemporary Korean art abroad par- allels the country's virtual absence from the Western imagination. In fact, Marc Voge, member of the two- person collaborative Young-hae Chang Heavy Indus- tries, routinely asks foreigners visiting South Korea for the first time whether they had a mental image of the country before arriving there. Invariably the answer is no. While the mention of Japan or China is likely to evoke visual compendiums of traditional artworks, travelogues, movies, and television news reports, Korea remains almost invisible to many Westerners. We hope that Your Bright Future will help rectify this situation.

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