Park Hyun-ki

Park Hyun-ki (Korean: 박현기, 1942 – 13 January 2000) is a pioneer[1] of Korean minimal video art.[2][3] Park was born in 1942 in Osaka, Japan but fled to Daegu, South Korea with his family in 1945 when there were warnings of imminent nuclear bombing by the United States.[3][4] Park enrolled at Hongik University as a painting major but graduated with an architecture degree in 1964.[5] Later Park returned to Daegu in the 1970s and worked at an interior architecture firm so he could purchase equipment to produce artworks.[3] He approached the medium of video art with an Eastern philosophical disposition, re-interpreting it as a "spiritual symbol of materialism and Western technology".[6][7] Through his works, he tested the boundaries of experimentation in conceptual art, especially that of experience with perception. Instead of investigating advanced technology of video art, Park used a low-tech simplicity that "treated the television monitor and televised image as sculpture in and of themselves".[3][6] He began to gain recognition as an artist at Daegu Contemporary Art Festival (established in 1974) and extended his scope by participating in international art fairs like Bienal de São Paulo (1979), Biennale de Paris (1980) and in number of exhibitions in Japan in the 1980s. After being diagnosed with stomach cancer, Park died in January, 2000 at the age of 59.[5] Not a single work was sold during his lifetime, but he left behind his massive collection of over 20,000 artworks and items that were donated[8] to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.

Video Inclining Water, 1979, Video performance, Size variable
Park Hyun-ki
Hangul
박현기
Hanja
朴炫基
Revised RomanizationBak Hyeon-gi
McCune–ReischauerPak Hyŏn'gi
In this Korean name, the family name is Park.

Works

Untitled (TV Stone Tower) (1979)[9][10] won the Grand Prize at Korea Art Exhibition held at Deoksugung National Museum of Art in 1980, being recognized as an important video installation that was new in the Korean art scene at the time. For his first overseas invitation to Bienal Internacional de Sao Paulo in 1979, Park installed Untitled (TV Stone Tower) for the first time abroad, along with Video Inclining Water. Untitled (TV Stone Tower) continuously appeared in his solo shows in Korea initially exhibited in Daegu Contemporary Art Festival (1979), Lee Gallery (1979), Media as Translator Performance (one-day outdoor performance) in Daegu (1982), Yoon Gallery (1984) and Soo Gallery(1985). It was eventually included in overseas exhibitions in Paris (1980) and was part of a travelling exhibition such as Korea Contemporary Art in five cities across Japan (1983), Taipei Fine Art Museum (1984) and Art Chicago (1998).[11][12]

In Video Inclining Water (1979)[11] performance art, which was also included in Bienal Internacional de São Paulo in 1979, Park tilts the video monitor in coordination to the static video image of water that is being played to give an illusion as if the monitor is filled with water. There are ten photograph editions of the performance.[13]

References
  1. "Korean art: What to look for in 2015". The Herald. 2015-01-05. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
  2. "The Pioneer of Korean Video Art Park, Hyun-Ki: A Retrospective | Asia Art Archive". aaa.org.hk. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  3. "Park Hyunki 1942-2000 Mandala". mmca.go.kr. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  4. Kim, Jeong-bae (2015). Park Hyunki 1942-2000 Mandala. Gwacheon, South Korea: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. p. 10. ISBN 978-89-6303-098-2.
  5. "Park Hyun-Ki | e-flux". e-flux.com. Retrieved 2015-06-11.
  6. "Exhibition highlights Koreas first video artist Park Hyun-ki". Arirang News. 2015-03-06. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  7. "Project MUSE - Hyunki Park: Neo-Metaphysical Video and Conceptual Art" (PDF). muse.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2015-06-15.
  8. Kim, Jeong-bae (2015). Park Hyunki 1942-2000 Mandala. Gwacheon, South Korea: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. p. 14. ISBN 978-89-6303-098-2.
  9. "The Original Creators: Hyun-Ki Park | The Creators Project". Retrieved 2015-06-26.
  10. Kim, Jeong-bae (2015). Park Hyunki 1942-2000 Mandala. Gwacheon, South Korea: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-89-6303-098-2.
  11. "Artists PARK Hyun-Ki". Gallery Hyundai. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
  12. Kim, Jeong-bae (2015). Park Hyunki 1942-2000 Mandala. Gwacheon, South Korea: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. p. 11. ISBN 978-89-6303-098-2.
  13. Kim, Jeong-bae (2015). Park Hyunki 1942-2000 Mandala. Gwacheon, Korea: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-89-6303-098-2.
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