The Open Studio Of Mipum Creative Space

On the day when this studio opens to the public, colleagues and villagers set the quiet rural village - about one hour away from Seoul by car – on fire. The four artists exhibited their art pieces in the room Hyunwoon Shin and Taekyun Kim uses. The art pieces of Taekyun Kim are exhibited at the outside of Mipum Creative Space and the big garden is crowed with people who enjoy artworks and food. The sky of autumn in early October at Paju was more beautiful than ever. Villagers who made time for the open studio though it was the busy farming seasons enjoyed the party here and there in the studio that seemed familiar to them and went back at dusk. Then, one by one various artists came to see the Mipum studio and artworks.

The singer from Paju, an acquaintance of artist Jisoo Kim sang a song to congratulate ‘open studio’ and subsequently the four artists had a time to explain their own works. In Paju there are a lot of musicians who are influenced by the American popular music like rock and pop music. Jisoo Kim explained what triggers opening the studio and its activities, and introduced stories about how the rest of members get together. Artist Hyunwoon Shin had lived in China but it has not been long since he came back to Korea with his family and lived in Hairi. He said Mipum is the appropriate studio for him. Artist Joonsang Park said that he came in Mipum leaving the studio he had used for ten years. He made decision to move to Paju to try a new work in a new place even though moving is not easy due to the kiln and various equipment for ceramic arts and expensive due to the voltage increase for electricity usage. Artist Taekyun Kim thought Mipum was the appropriate studio for him in terms of location because he lived nearby. And then he explained the artwork.

Artist Jisoo Kim continues digital work to create a color face by hanging pixels of a cross section long. He put various colors of things on screen by digitalizing sources of videos and pictures with computer programs. As if we magnify the parts after taking hold of one piece among various elements hidden in the shape of visible combined objects, creating a color face becomes pictures or video clips. The recent work is to show multi-layered images on the window of a door taken off from a scrapped car, to reproduce images collected images on the door of a car. Some images of people include feverish ladies in pornography as if she expresses pleasure. Images of people with various looks, as if they are reflected in the black coated window of a car or we look into the window, are ‘consumed’ ones in the real world and cause various feelings.

Artist Hyunwoon Shin continued his work in sculpture creating images of dropped bombs from the sky or broken light bulbs by connecting wires. Instead of making broken light bulbs, dropped bombs and fires, he makes scattered leaves only with a frame using short wires. The artist, who told he did not work a lot recently, exhibited the upright standing figure created by binding thick wires in the open studio. The figure is hollow on its inside through the thick wires but describes the strong human body. I could read the confidence and expectation of the artist who came back from China and is preparing for a new piece of art.

Artist Junsang Park who creates a ceramic sculpture created various animals. From his early days to recently he has continued his work with themes of deer and machines but he is using various animals as a theme to hedge the risk of being typecast as a ‘deer artist’. His animal figures looks like a robot mixing with the images of machines. Through the animals combined with machines, the artist notionally reveals how much impact what human beings have done gives on animals. The work seems to have a message that the bad behaviors of human beings causing nature’s destruction goes back to us like a boomerang. His artwork of making the shape with clay and baking it in a kiln is very realistic and feels stronger and heavier than metal sculptures. Such weights firmly reveal the messages the artist is going to convey. Sometimes the artist, who bakes dishes and sells them in a cheap price to make money, is finding ways how he can continue his work. Discussion on various experiences and alternatives lasted till late because these are common interests of many artists and directors including me.

Artist Taekyun Kim, who creates a metal sculpture of animals - one of nature objects, shows his own philosophy on nature. The artist describes the process of making the status quo the status of order using chaos theory. Like a fractal concept that patterns consist of the whole, he makes small metal patterns and combines them into an animal figure. He calculates and designs patterns with computer programs so that the accurate parts can consist of the whole.
All patterns cannot be consistent but the artist himself makes the rule and combines the patterns into a nature object. In other words, human beings are a part of nature, and human activities and civilization are a procedure of establishing the order as a part of nature. It is obvious that a lot of things against the law of nature are caused by human beings, but nature consists of the whole reflecting the changed patterns and plays a role of restoring the order. His works also seem to follow the law of nature. Artist Taekyun Kim draws the shape in his mind at first but composes the whole making parts that will be combined as if John Pai, Korean-American artist, creates the whole shape welding pieces of wires. He creates figures of dynamic and strong animals, which I think implies another characteristic of nature that is moving and changing all the time.

All the artists in Mipum express their agony on nature in their artwork. I am sure that their love of humanity is revealed as the love of nature. Through artists at Mipum, I can make sure that people who share the viewpoints on nature and the artwork always get together even though they have different personalities. Unsurprisingly, it is said they share ideas on the work all the time and learn a lot of things from one another’s way of working. Sometimes they drink together to share information and find a solution to their problems.

A colleague becomes a teacher and a family for an artist who works with being isolated. From the beginning artist Jisoo Park planned to build a way of working that artists get together but work in an independent space. This is a dominant principle of Mipum where artists practice ‘Art Poomassi’, which is still working.

Paju where Mipum is located is geographically extraordinary. As I mentioned before, Paju is closer to Gaesung than to Seoul and has a lot of military camps. And recently industrial complexes are built there. Most neighbors are famers and Jisoo Park introduced their studio to their neighbors through the head of this village. The neighbors who are invited visited here with curiosity about what artists do there. Artist Jisoo Kim said that various cultural facilities are being built in this area but there is few places residents can visit with ease. Mipum Creative Space can be a place to keep in tune with the neighbors and do something considering the geographical extraordinariness. Four artists will continue their individual work but the quiet request of the neighbors will move the artists. The trial to open artists’ studio by the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation and Mipum’s acceptance of would be the beginning of such a move.

Written by Junho Seo
(Director, Space O’NewWall)