• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
• /
• no.10
• /
• pp.105-118
• /
• 2010

This study discusses the community of participants in new media-based art of Taeyoon Choi, Wafaa Bilal and Mushon Zer-Aviv in relation to current discourses on social functions of art by Nicolas Bourriaud and Jacques Ranciere. Focusing on these artists' participatory projects which aim to provide alternative perspectives on wars between countries, to raise awareness about expanding surveillance systems in city spaces, or to create new public spaces on the web, this paper argues that their works hybridize entertainment culture and political activism to suggest a new model for political art.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
• /
• no.7
• /
• pp.7-36
• /
• 2009

This paper intends to examine the significance of the "Minjoong Misool(People's art)" of the 1980s emerged in Korea in its social, cultural, and art historical context. This paper also aims to provide an analysis of the meaning and form of the individual artist's works, which have been overlooked under the dominant discourse that has emphasized their political role as a collective group. In particular, this paper scrutinizes the work of "Critical Realists" by examining the way in which they perceived Korean society in the early 1980s and visualized their experiences of the period. The figurative art newly emerged in the early 1980s challenged the formalist Modernism, which was adopted into Korea and translated into monochrome paintings and the work of the conversative academicism of the 1970s. The figurative art encouraged a social communication and moreover it intended to criticize the conflicts in the political, economical, and social domains in Korea. The targets of its critique include the unavoidable results of the unprecedented development of economy, various social phenomena of the post-industrial society, and the growth of the commercialized kitsch culture. Along with Shin, Hak-chul's work that incorporates collage technique since the 1980s, the work of some members of "Reality and Utterance" and "Im- sul-nyun" exemplify their critical interests in disclosing the false dream of wealth and happiness by both referring to and drawing on the utopian fantasy manipulated and distributed by mass media and commercial advertisements. This paper pays particular attention to Nouvelle Figuration emerged in France and Europe during the 1960s, which is comparable to the new figurative art emerged in Korea during the 1980s. Nouvelle Figuration criticized the autonomy in art isolated itself from political and social reality after WWII, in particular the indifference of Informel and abstract art as well as American abstract art. Moreover it became rather politicized around May of 1968. Given that French Nouvelle Figuration was introduced in Korea in 1982 and made a significant contribution to the formation of figurative art in Korea, it should be noted that the new figurative art emerged in the 1980s in Korea cannot be categorized merely in relation to People's Art. This paper intends to critically redress the notion that People's art was formed in the particular political, economical, and cultural context of Korea independent of the contemporary artistic practices outside Korea. It will provide a critical examination and analysis of the content and form of the new figurative art, from which People's Art was germinated, in the global context.

• Journal of Koreanology Reviews
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.27-31
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between Art management and Cultural activities in China from the K-wave case. Research design, data, and methodology: This study used the method of the cases study survey, with the K-wave case in as the survey objects, 3 valid survey sample case were collected in this paper. Results: The two dimensions of art management and cultural activities differently influences from the K-wave, and the influence of availability on customer satisfaction is not significant. Conclusion: The results of this study will provide useful reference for the Art management and Cultural activities in China from the K-wave case. And improve the development of art management and cultural activities in China by improving the K-wave of service quality. Art management can shape urban commercial space in a beneficial way, create a good consumption atmosphere, and enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of the city. The introduction of art elements into urban commercial space can create a strong cultural atmosphere, so that the city presents a smart look. Art management has a positive impact on K-Wave production and operation activities, which can promote the shaping of art commercial space, the promotion of urban cultural atmosphere.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
• /
• no.8
• /
• pp.185-215
• /
• 2009

In Malaysia, figurative painting has increasingly become a means for artists to pose questions about presumptions of power and assumptions of history. The body, its potentially breached boundaries and defenses, forms an integral component of the battle for political influence. The degree of control over one's own and other people's bodies has become a measuring stick to determine the power of potential political leaders. Anxiety about boundaries and access to powerful bodies is intertwined with the questions of who has the right to hold power; the relevance of moral bodies and of what comprises an ideal self or selves. These questions are raised in intriguing ways in contemporary Malaysian art. While eschewing a direct take on current politics, Malaysian artists have increasingly turned to the body to address issues in Malaysian history, culture and the distribution of power. This paper will explore some works by three artists in particular, Wong Hoy Cheong, Nadiah Bamadhaj and Ahmad Fuad Osman use the figure to problematise dominant narratives in Malaysian history. Their work variously challenge political, racial and gender hierarchies and in so doing, reveal them as social constructions.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
• /
• no.1
• /
• pp.109-144
• /
• 2003

Orientalness is a concept that expresses the collective identity of the Orient in relation to the West. The concept itself is mutable and defined by the relationship between the two regions at different points in time. Changes in the concept depend on a number of factors, such as cultural influence, the political balance of power between the two regions, and on the interpretative scheme that defines the relationship. In addition, the geographical notion of the concept evolves culturally, socially and politically. During this process, Oriental-ness becomes Oriental-ism at times. I will attempt to survey and measure the progression of Orientalness from its emergence in early 17th century to its subsequent transformation in modern Korea as reflected in art theory and art works. The recognition of the comparative characteristics of Oriental art began when the Orient was exposed to the art of the West in the late Ming dynasty during the early 17th century. The changes in the artistic climate in China affected the late Chosun. I will start with a brief introduction of this time and the birth of Orientalness. The concept gradually changed during the period of Enlightenment(開化期) towards the end of the 19th century, and during the colonial period( 1910-1945) it took on a new form. Establishment of the concept of "Orient"as a single, unifying concept spanning across cultures and national boundaries has been attributed to late Meiji period Japan, whose intention at that time is believed to have been to build a pan-Asia(亞細亞) empire with Japan at its commanding center. It has been stressed that the real motive behind the formation of one single cultural unit, where the shared common written language was Chinese and Confucianism and Taoism were the common metaphysical traditions, was to build one political unit. When the notion of a geographical unit of Asia was replaced by the concept of Asia as a cultural and political unit, a massive growth of interest and discourse were provoked around the concept of Orientalism. When Orientalism was being formulated, Korea automatically became member of "one Asia" when the country became colonized. For Koreans, the identity of the Orient had to be defined in cultural terms, as the political notion of a nation was non-existent at that time. The definition of identity was pursued at two levels, pan-Asian and local. If Orientalism was an elite discourse centered in pan-Asian philosophical and religious tradition, localized Orientalism was a popular discourse emphasizing locality as the byproduct of natural geographic condition. After the liberation in 1945 from colonial rule, a thrust of movement arose towards political nationalism. Two types of discourses on Orientalism, elite and popular, continued as central themes in art. Despite the effort to redefine the national identity by eradicating the cultural language of the colonial past, the past was enduring well into the present time. As discussed above, even when the painting themes were selected from Korean history, the tradition of using history painting as a manifestation of political policy to glorify the local identity had its founding during the Meiji period. The elevation of folk art to the level of high art also goes back to the colonial promotion of local color and local sentiment. Again, the succession of the past (colonial) ideal was defended as the tradition assumed a distinct modern shape that was abstract in style. The concept of the "Orient" is of relative and changing nature. It was formulated in relation to Western culture or civilization. Whatever the real motive of the adoption of them had been, the superiority of the Orient was emphasized at all times. The essence of the Orient was always perceived as the metaphysical tradition as a way to downgrade Western culture as materialistic. This view still prevails and the principle of Orient was always sought in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Even when Orientalism was employed by imperialist Japan in an effort to establish her position as the center of the Orient, the spiritual source was still in Chinese philosophy and religion. In art also, the Chinese literati tradition became the major platform for elite discourse. Orientalism was also defined locally, and the so-called local color was pursued in terms of theme and style. Thus trend continued despite the effort to eradicate the remnants of colonial culture long after liberation. These efforts are now being supported politically and also institutionalized to become the aesthetic ideal of the modern Korean art.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.34
• /
• pp.7-41
• /
• 2014

This article examines magical realism in contemporary european film, which is considered to be one of the most popular styles in the present culture, with regards to Antonio Negri's theory of art. Magical realism is "alternative approach to reality" (Maggie Ann Bowers, Magic(al) Realism) and defined as "a fictional technique that combines fantasy with raw physical reality or social reality in a search for truth beyond that available from the surface of everyday life" (Joan Mellen, Magic Realism). The term of Magic Realism was coined in 1923 by Franz Roh, German art historian, as the concept for the post-expressionist painting in Germany. It has flourished in the Latin-American literature during the 1950s to 1980s and spread worldwide. Since 1980s magical realism is considered to be a universal artistic mode. Since 1990s magical realism is to find in the various novels, and since 2000 one encounters magical realism in the cinema very often. Antonio Negri writes about the relationship between life, imagination, art and the political in his book Art et Multitude. According to Negri, the hard life of people in the present society liberates the imagination and this creates the art as "the excess of the existence". In this process the aesthetic becomes to the political. Negri calls this space of art as "magical time and space". Claire Denis' film Vendredi Soir is analyzed as a contemporary magic realist text, which realizes Negri's concept of art: vendredi soir (friday night) in Vendredi Soir is the magical time, when the impossible becomes the possible, and paris in the public transportation strike is the magical space, where the individuals meet the other in a new situation. The film analysis associates itself with Negri's theory of art: in Vendredi Soir, it is to see, that the excess of the existence liberates imagination and creates the magic reality both in the movements of things and the human relationship. The phenomenon of magical realism in contemporary culture can be understood as the symptom of the emotional and existential pains of contemporary people in the current world. The contemporaneity of the magical realism can be read in the film as "the metaphor for contemporary thought" (Alain Badiou, Cinema). As Antonio Negri writes, art can become "the aesthetic redemption" (Negri, Art et Multitude) for us. At the same time "(t)his is where aesthetics can be transformed into the political." (Lee, "Communism and the Void")

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
• /
• no.4
• /
• pp.33-56
• /
• 2006

The cultural debates between conservatives and liberals at the end of the 1980s and in the early 1990s were termed as "culture wars." The "culture wars" involved a diverse range of controversial issues, such as the introduction of multicultural curricula in educational institutions, prayers in schools, whether to allow gays to serve openly in the military, and whether abortion should be permitted. The most heated debates of the "culture wars" regarding art raged over the NEA and the question of whether Andres Serrano's works should have been publicly funded, in addition to the exhibition "Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment" which were charged as projecting "obscene" or "blasphemous" images. This paper examines the development of culture wars in art and focuses on several issues invoked by the NEA debates. However, it is not a detailed chronological investigation. Rather it pays attention to the several phases of the debates, analyzing and criticizing the clashes of the political and esthetical points of views between conservatives and liberals. How could NEA funding, a mere fraction of the federal budget, have become so critical for both sides(conservative and liberal), for politicians and artists' groups, and for academics and the general public? The art community was astounded by this chain of events; artists personally reviled, exhibitions withdrawn and under attack, the NEA budget threatened, all because of a few images. For conservative politicians, the NEA debate was not only a battle over the public funding of art, but a war over a larger social agenda, a war for "American values and cultures"based on the family, Christianity, the English language, and patriarchy. Conservative politicians argued the question was not one of "censorship" but of "sponsorship," since the NEA charter committed it to "helping museums better serve the citizens of the United States."Liberals and art communities argued that the attempt to restrict NEA funding violated the First Amendment rights of artists, namely "free speeches." "No matter how divided individuals are on matters of taste," Arthur C. Danto wrote, "freedom is in the interest of every citizen." The interesting phase is that both sides are actually borrowing one another's point of view when they are accompanied by art criticism. Kramer, representative of conservative art critic, objected the invasion of political contents or values in art, and struggled to keep art's own realm by promoting pure aesthetic values such as quality and beauty. But, when he talked about Mapplethorpe's works, he advocated political and ethical values. By contrast, art experts who argued for Mapplethorpe's works in the Cincinnati trial defended his work, ironically by ignoring its manifest sexual metaphor or content although they believed that the issues of AIDS and homosexuality in his work were to be freely expressed in the art form. They adopted a formalistic approach, for example, by comparing a child nude with putti, a traditional child-angel icon. For a while, NEA debates made art institutions, whether consciously or unconsciously, exert self-censorship, yet at the same time they were also producing positive aspects. To the majority of people, art was still regarded as belonging to the pure aesthetic realm away from political, economical, and social ones. These debates, however, were expanding the very perspective on the notion of what is art and of how art is produced, raising questions on art appreciation, representation, and power. The interesting fact remains: had the works not been swiped in NEA debates, could the Serrano's or Mapplethorpe's images gain the extent of power and acceptance that it has today?

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
• /
• no.16
• /
• pp.257-272
• /
• 2013

This paper analyzes six different ways of articulating the relationship between art and politics. It calls attention to the differences that lurk behind the seemingly simple phrase-everywhere in vogue today-the "politics of aesthetics." Five of these models are drawn from contemporary discussions regarding the politics of art. The last model is the attempt to develop an account of the politics of aesthetics that is faithful to the difficult and ambiguous dimensions of the aesthetic experience that were hinted at by the texts of classical philosophical aesthetics. Most notably, this paper is concerned with the idea that the aesthetic experience can be understood as a form of disinterested contemplation-one that is not reducible to cognitive or moral considerations-and with some of the consequences that this entails. It explores some of the political significance that can be attributed to this idea of disinterested contemplation, arguing that the aesthetic should be understood as a withdrawal from the world's pre-established meanings. Unlike some of the other thinkers discussed in this paper, this author doubts that a single, uniform meaning can be ascribed to the aesthetic experience. I thus argue that we need to approach the aesthetic through the networks of textual significance that have been built up around it. Throughout this paper, I attempt to explain how the efforts to link art and aesthetics to politics simultaneously give rise to ideas about the nature of the human community. In looking at the sixth and final model, what I have called the "anarchical politics of aesthetic ambiguity," I argue that the aesthetic tradition offers a rather unique way of understanding the relationship between the individual and the community. Here, we see that the aesthetic is prone to a number of paradoxes, central among them the one that makes art the bearer of a solipsistic pleasure in which we nevertheless discover our capacity for genuinely communicating with others, outside of cliches and banalities.

• The Journal of Art Theory & Practice
• /
• no.7
• /
• pp.125-163
• /
• 2009

The artworks of Socialist Realism of the former Soviet Union, with the beginning of the 21st century, are gaining a new attention from art collectors. One reason for this might consist in the fact that relevant art pieces exemplify the ways in which they visualize ideas on the basis of their high-profile art tradition and also in which they integrate their utopian ideals with mysticism. These aspects of the Soviet art goes far beyond the wide-spread assumption that their art, as a means of propaganda, principally represents a political allegiance to the system. With Stalin coming into power in the 1930s, the artistic trend of Socialist Realism obtained a nationwide sympathy and support from people, giving birth to a new art which essentially corresponded to the demands of the political power. An official art current of the USSR over the period from the 1930s to 1950s, Socialist Realism was in tandem with the Communist commitment to the party and popularity, symbolizing a loyalty to the cause. It was thus characterized by plainness and lucidity so that ordinary people could gain easy access to art. Its salient feature, over an entire range of art, was an optimistic pursuit of a utopian dream. Therefore, it tallied with the popular sentiment for a Communist paradise, giving form to their beliefs in human agency working at the materialist world and also to such abstract concepts as force, fitness, and beauty by adding even mythical ideals. Its main subject matter includes harvest feasts of collective farms, imaginary socialist cities, grand marches of heroic laborers and in this way it served as a propaganda for a sacred utopia of socialist totalitarianism. On the other end of the spectrum, however, rose the second camp of art, which put an emphasis on bona-fide artistic activities of plastic art and on an artist's personal expression and freedom, as opposed to the surface optimism of Socialist Realism. Central to the Russian Avant Garde art, which prized the above-mentioned values, were Malevich's Geometric Abstraction and A. Rodchenko's Constructivism. Furthermore, in the transitional era of the late 20th century and the 21st century it was recognized that film art or electronic media art, rather than traditional genre of paintings, would function as a more efficient way of propaganda. These new genres were made possible by ridiculing the stereotypes of the Russian lifestyle and also by ignoring ethical or professional dimensions of artworks. That is, they reinvented themselves into a sort of field art, seemingly degrading the quality of artworks and transforming them into artifacts or simulacres in the very sense of post-modernism. The advent of the new era brought about the formation and occupation of pop culture of the younger generations, calling into question the idea of art as the class-determined. It also increased the attention to field art, which extensively found way to modern art centers, galleries, and exhibition projects. It can be stated that this was a natural outcome of human nature.

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.48
• /
• pp.109-134
• /
• 2009

This study explores the political parody, which has become an active art form in order to express Korean Internet users' political practices, especially, during the politically turbulent periods from the presidential election of 2003 to the recent candlelight vigil protest of 2008. This study investigates the rise and fall of a parody culture by online users from the mid-2000s, and also examines aesthetical aspects of parodic artworks relying on amateurism culminated in 2004. Specifically, the current study questions an aesthetical lack shown in 'appropriation', by which most of the online users simply produce imitations of original image. This study rather notes 'photomontage' as an aesthetic prototype, the political aesthetics made by John Heartfield, through which this study intends to observe how his aesthetical legacy of political art could be realized in the contemporary form of political parodies produced by online users. The present paper concludes that online users' political participations in producing critical works of art could allow us to negate the dichotomy between the elite and the mass, professional artists and amateur parodists, and a radical politics and the politics of style.