Bang Jeong ah
Therefore, to remain pure / I had to learn to pray differently. / A way to love differently
/ to hide, to skip over, to deny / and at the same time to pick out with fingers // the different sides of each and every object/ to never take a philosophical view/ to never attain spiritual enlightenment / to always cry like a child // and to smile as much as I can just like a child,/ a child/ who is having a good time with another child_
From ‘A Study of Life in this Summer’ by Choi Seung Ja
The above excerpt is from a poem that was included as part of a personal exhibition of artist Bang Jeong Ah's works held in 1996.
There is a reason why Choi Seung Ja's poem was used to preface these words about the artist and her work. Bang's works are descriptions of certain scenes, somewhat akin to picture stories. In her work, ambiguous looking characters are often introduced; they are typical women we might very easily encounter in our everyday lives. Because the characters and situations presented in Bang's works are so typical, we need to appreciate the meaning of Bang's works as if we were solving a riddle. And the lines from the poet Choi Seung Ja's poem are helpful in understanding the artist's hidden thoughts in the different stories.
I first came across the work of artist Bang Jeong Ah in a pamphlet. The piece, entitled
「Life Cinema-You are my forever enemy」, is a painting of a married couple about to fight, each spouse with arms outstretched towards the conjugal opponent. I have also seen the work 「As I Started to Miss You」, a painting of two middle-aged married ladies who are totally immersed in the act of watching television and eating an apple. They are leaning against a wall covered with jaded wallpaper with a blanket covering their lower legs. This painting, which evokes comical images from daily soap operas brought a smile to my lips. Artist Bang's works are very far from being refined; rather her works seem familiar and amicable. Her works resemble our actual lives; lives that inspire us. In that sense, the artist handled what she had personally experienced or at least what she had personally observed. It may seem awkward to present a jesting and sentimental piece as a dark and negative secular experience. However, although such works appear to offer scenes of trivial warmth, there exist things that are just like splinters in our hands and which we cannot comfortably pass by. Artist Bang experienced the Korea of the 1980's, and that experience must have become, from a social and political viewpoint, a foundation from which she can sympathize with the passion for democratization. We are unable to fathom her ideology or political viewpoint clearly from her works. However, we can feel her urge to portray what lies behind the reality. What she represents in her pieces is tightly woven with our everyday lives rather than with any awkward ideology or heavy political issues.
Bang's works on show in this exhibition are not very different from her past creations. It is the artist's prerogative to give idiosyncratic titles to his or her own works. Some of Bang’s titles include 「Why was Life a Pain for Her」, 「Five Thousand Won Bills」, 「Myself, Who's About to Burst」,「Already Old」, 「A Fool Hurting Himself」 .
Among her works, 「To her..」is a drawing which portrays an incident that Bang actually observed 쭯 that of a woman who fainted in a public restroom. Bang could simply have treated this scene with a sense of pity or even mockery towards the woman. However, she chose to paint with a theme of 'Why?' There could be many reasons for such a misfortune to occur to a woman - Bang thought the woman did not just faint. To her, it seemed as likely that the woman had fainted following the ingestion of some drug; almost everyone knows that the happiness and misfortune of an individual are no longer just the problems of that person but the problems of our society as a whole.
And what about a woman who is perusing underwear priced at 5,000 won - how did she become the theme of a painting?
The answer to this question must be considered with an image of the woman who lost her dignity as a human being in the piece entitled「Myself, Who's About to Burst」, and that of an old woman who has lost all her energy to a harsh life.
The subject of the piece seems like a dupe or a snob. The traces of the brush are far from being detailed; even the colors are dull, as if the artist was trying to avoid sophistication. The woman portrayed and the awkward brush style suit one another. She gives an impression that she is wearing something that is not hers; that she is adapting to her everyday life. She looks weak and anxious, as if she could be eliminated at any moment. Could this be a metaphor for the unjust life women are often forced to lead?
Beyond such thoughts, Bang's painting represents the sense of risk felt by our community: a community that promotes stability and rationality. The anxiety of building a castle with sand, which will collapse with one wave of the ocean, is reflected in the piece entitled「Doubt」. A woman is sitting all alone on a chair in a subway station, evidently concerned that someone is watching her.
These works, with their themes taken from everyday life, are the results of the unseen struggle of the artist, who wanted to plunge more deeply into our everyday life without creating something absurd. Even if her paintings seem to flow from one single philosophy created after many years of commitment, the keen tension behind these pieces enlivens her work. Everyday life, caught with a sense of thrill, connotes a certain sense of risk. And here, this risk should not be limited to women but should be applied to all people living in our modern society.
Society always cries out loud for a safe and peaceful life. However, the identity of the actual risk, which could arise anywhere, may actually be ragged and isolated. 「A Fool Hurting Himself」 stimulates the brain of the modern individual who tries, or has, to close his eyes to that sense of risk in order to get through another day.
Shin Hae Young (Curator at Gallery Sang)