Chung Youyeon (Senior Curator, OCI Museum of Art) 2024

[Preface]

Chung Youyeon (Senior Curator, OCI Museum of Art) 2024

We encounter various forms of coercion in society. Dualistic thinking and polarized perspectives, produced by authority, institutions, and the media, are far from encompassing the full spectrum of life. Even as we simply strive to live ‘well’ according to our own beliefs, there are moments when rigid standards unwittingly cast us as harmless sinners. We try to steel ourselves to stay unruffled and walk our path unwaveringly, yet even the most steadfast convictions are prone to falter at times.

When we face moments of uncertainty, feeling anxious and yearning to lean on something, we turn to prayer. In such times, we usually attempt to convey our earnest feelings to an omnipotent entity believed to exist in the supernatural realm. We are aware that these attempts may not necessarily resolve our situations in reality. Yet, prayer offers us hope and a sense of reassurance that everything will turn out well. With this belief, we regain momentum, rise again, and find the strength to overcome adversity.

The title of this exhibition, “Living Well, Becoming a Sinner,” is a phrase excerpted from Cho Hyunik’s note written in 2016. One day, the artist received a proselytizing leaflet bearing the words “the duty of faith,” which sparked reflections on the contrasting notions of “responsibility and coercion” and “tolerance and violence” suggested by the terms “faith” and “duty.” In a societal atmosphere where not adhering to a particular religion might cast one as faithless or failing in one’s moral obligations as a human being, the artist began to wrestle with the question: “What faith and duty should I follow?”

The works of Park Grim and Cho Hyunik offer glimpses of possible answers to this question. Both artists recognize that resolving the inner turmoil caused by external influences ultimately lies with oneself and one’s own choices. Through the act of artistic creation, they clarify their convictions about these choices. Park Grim draws on the style of Buddhist paintings, while Cho Hyunik incorporates elements of altars, rituals, and the iconography of Christian art—both borrowing the visual language of religious art. However, they do not embrace the dogma or doctrines of any specific religion. Instead, they explore the functions, roles, and attitudes of religion within human society as material for their creative practice.

Ultimately, the essence that runs through both artists’ work is the idea that artistic creation, for them, is a process of spiritual practice. Amid the countless lives in the vast world, could living most authentically as ‘oneself’ be the truest way to live ‘well’? Reflecting on art’s essential role in broadening the threshold of tolerance for diversity, the works of Park Grim and Cho Hyunik remind us to embrace an attitude that honors individual lives, personal freedom, the right to choose, and the pluralism of society.

Park Grim: Expressing Queer Identity through Art

As a queer artist, Park Grim encapsulates the identities and cultures of sexual minorities through the medium of Buddhist painting. Having experienced being marginalized and forced to conceal his sexual orientation, Park transforms the relationships or wounds that arose from the tension with the world into works of art. His creations reflect a process of realization reached through these struggles.

Beautiful and Elaborate Depictions of the Objects

What captivates us most in Park Grim’s works is, above all, their technique. The exquisite brushstrokes, flawless in precision, and the almost suffocating refinement of the brushwork leave us in awe. His mastery of painting is the result of years of rigorous practice and discipline, and perhaps this level of excellence is to be expected. Before starts his career as an artist, Park Grim immersed himself in the study of technique, learning the art of ‘Taenghwa’ (“Buddhist painting”) through a mentor-apprentice system, dedicating himself to the craft with unwavering focus. Through this process, he not only mastered technique but also naturally developed a way of composing the visual elements of his paintings. Over time, he expanded his artistic world by applying allegories, often found in Buddhist paintings that aim to edify and guide all sentient beings suffering, to his own exploration of identity and the process of realization. From the gaze of the Buddha, imbued with profound insight, to the hand gestures (“mudras”) and body postures, every element is meticulously rendered. The serene and intricate depictions of the bodhisattvas’ transparent robes (“Sara”), the exquisite and dignified jewelry and attire, and every other detail are all flawlessly executed. Nothing is left to chance; each iconographic element is placed with careful premeditation, following a thorough and deliberate design, ensuring that every aspect of the painting is in harmony.

The Wounds Stemming from Relationships and the Process of Overcoming Them, and Self-Discovery: The Series of Hwarangdo (2015-2022) and Shimhodo (2018-present)

What, then, has Park Grim chosen to portray in his artwork? As mentioned earlier, while his paintings adopt the style of Buddhist painting, the content is not based on the doctrines of Buddhism, but rather in deeply personal experiences. These works explore themes of personal struggle, healing, and transformation, drawing from the artist’s own journey of introspection and self-discovery. Since 2015, when he began creating works with the conscious intent to produce art, Park Grim has focused unwaveringly on a single theme, which is also the central narrative of the new works featured in this exhibition: the story of a person with a queer identity navigating various human relationships, the wounds that arose from them, and the long journey towards healing, overcoming, and realization.

Relationships with people encountered throughout life—some of whom might be described as fateful connections—became the starting point of Park Grim’s work. The Hwarangdo series (2015-2022) served as the foundation for all the projects that followed. The series is a collection of portraits inspired by selfies of queer individuals showing off their striking appearances on social media, reinterpreted in the form of traditional portraiture. The bold self-presentation of men showcasing themselves online both inspired admiration and stirred envy in Park Grim. Witnessing a culture among sexual minorities—who are already classified as societal outliers—of judging and categorizing one another based on appearance left a kind of would on him. However, through a series of experiences, such as observing the discrepancy between carefully curated selfies and people’s actual appearances, he reached a new level of understanding and insight.

This inner turmoil later gave rise to the Shimhodo series (2018-present), which draws inspiration from Simudo (“Ten Ox-Herding Pictures”), traditionally created in Buddhism to guide all sentient beings suffering from Samsara. Simudo allegorically depicts the journey of discovering one’s inner nature (“Buddha-nature”) through the image of a herder taming a wild ox. Park Grim reimagined this concept by replacing the ox with a tiger, naming his reinterpretation Shimhodo (“Painting of Seeking the Tiger”), and developing it into a unique artistic style that reflects his personal narrative. In Eastern traditions, tigers are often regarded as spiritual creatures, yet Park Grim focuses on the tiger from the Dangun myth from ancient Korea—the one that failed to become human. Seeing in the tiger's incomplete and unresolved nature a reflection of his own gender identity, Park adopted the tiger as his persona in place of the ox. By portraying the various individuals he formed connections with throughout his life in the form of bodhisattvas in his paintings, he illustrates the process of gaining insight through human relationships.

Detachment beyond Overcoming: The Bel Ami (2020-2024) and XOXO (2024) Series

The theme of forming relationships as a queer individual becomes even more pronounced in Park Grim's recent series, Bel Ami (2020-2024). The title, meaning "beautiful man" in French, also refers to the name of a queer adult film production company. Park witnessed that, for the queer individuals around him, physical contact often preceded emotional connection in their relationships. He represented these situations in his work, either by chaotically intertwining these images or by depicting them in raw, close-up detail. Perhaps he felt a sense of weariness from the recurring pattern of relationships that mostly led to fleeting physical encounters rather than deeper, lasting emotional connections. Sparkling flashes are noticeable over the images of the figures, created by repeatedly scratching the surface of the painting to peel away layers of paint. This technique makes the marks appear as if they are causing the figures to glow. It serves as a metaphor for the layers of wounds accumulated in the process of relationships, where the superficial is prioritized, and the struggle for connection is often marked by the prevalence of fleeting and shallow encounters.

The newly presented XOXO (2024) series extends the themes of the Bel Ami series but offers a more bold, daring, and direct depiction of physical acts. The artist says that the fleeting relationships and the wounds they caused now feel like distant memories. The weariness and dissatisfaction with exhausting human connections have ultimately neutralized desire. Perhaps it is this very detachment from desire that allowed the artist to confront reality head-on, depicting it openly and without concealment in his work.

Park Grim continuously weaves autobiographical narratives into his artwork, exploring not only his queer identity but also the human relationships behind it, along with the wounds, healing, and self-awareness that arise from them. Through his artistic creation, he unfolds and communicates his story, a process that serves as both introspective reflection and personal discipline, strengthening his inner resolve. At the same time, his work acts as a subtle warning to a world that still dismisses 'difference' as 'wrong.'

Cho Hyunik: Serving Life through Art

Cho Hyunik transforms every moment and emotion encountered in an ordinary day into the material for his artwork. Since that day, like all days in the life of a mortal, will never return, he treats its preciousness on a sublime level, ultimately deifying it as an object of reverence. Just as some worship gods, the artist serves his life through his art. For him, the act of creating art is itself a ritualistic practice.

In front of his works, Cho Hyunik is more honest and sincere than ever, never embellishing or exaggerating. As a result, the evolution of his life has paralleled a continuous transformation in his artistic style. From canvas paintings to large-scale metal plate works over four meters in length, he has consistently embraced freedom in both form and media. In a similar vein, Cho Hyunik’s work reveals the blurred boundaries between the contrasting concepts of ‘the sacred and the secular.’ and the ‘sacred and the sexual.' These dualities, omnipresent in our daily lives and essential to the very constitution of human existence, are elements that Cho Hyunik finds deeply compelling.

The Altar of Love, Heartbreak, and Desire: Light, Cut Myself (Flash-S-101988) (2010) and The Column of Light (Flash-I-1313145) (2012-2024)

Over the past two decades, from the early 2000s to the present, Cho Hyunik's work has undergone significant stylistic transformations. However, one constant in his art remains unchanging: life itself is both the object of his devotion and his religion. Around 2010, when Cho Hyunik was working on Light, Cut Myself (Flash-S-101988), it was love and the emotions that accompanied it that governed his life. As is often the case with first love, which tends to remain a bittersweet memory, love shared between humans carries with it its own perspectives, memories, and pains. The same was true for the artist. He regretted, thinking, "I did my best, but what did I do wrong?" The pain became a catalyst for his artistic creation, leading him to carve rough scratches into the surface of a metal plate, capturing the depth of a dark abyss. With intense strokes, he brought to life the portrait of someone he once loved. He also constructed The Column of Light (Flash-I-1313145) (2012-2024), an iron structure made up of dozens of candles, and suspended chains in the air, evoking the scene of a fanatical ritualistic altar. The offering in that ritual might well have been none other than the artist’s own desires.

Building a Personal Shrine: Private Temple (2014-2024)

Private Temple, first produced in 2014 and reworked for this exhibition, is a piece that takes the form of an actual altar. This work is a deeply personal shrine, built around Faith (2014), a piece that incorporates the image of the “Samantabhadra with Consort Statue,” which is a male and female figure in the act of copulation, drawn onto a brass plate. Surrounding this central work are shelves and tables installed with objects reminiscent of sacred offerings, sculptures evoking the shape of the female genitalia, and a pornographic album (“Chunhwacheob”), all interwoven to create a highly private altar. In the “Samantabhadra with Consort Statue” from the tradition of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, which views the physical union of male and female as a manifestation of the integration of compassion and wisdom, Cho Hyunik saw the coexistence of the 'sacred' and the 'sexual.' By revealing the simultaneous presence of both the religious and the sexual, as well as the 'holy' and the 'mundane,' he underscores that the definitions of these dual attributes are separated by nothing more than the slightest of differences.

Deification of Children: The Duty of Faith - Birth (2015) and The Duty of Faith: Mother and I - Prayer (2016)

Upon encountering childbirth, a major turning point in life, Cho Hyunik’s works take on an even stronger religious tone. While he continued to work on heavy steel plates, the subjects of his creations began to be filled with something more precious than anything else in the world—his children. The Duty of Faith - Birth (2015), depicting the artist’s son at 100 days old on a brass plate, was crafted to evoke an overwhelming sense of awe and aura, as though one were gazing up at an imposing religious icon. In front of it, The Duty of Faith: Mother and I - Prayer (2016) spins gently in continuous motion. A brass bowl collides with a suspended spoon and chopsticks, producing a clear, resonant sound reminiscent of a temple’s chime. The meaning is unmistakable: a father’s ritual for his 100-day-old son, wishing that he will eat ‘well’ and live ‘well’.

Creating Modern Icons: The Projects of Icon and Neo-Icon (2020-present)

The process of raising his children amplified Cho Hyunik’s desire to honor the sacred moments of everyday life, inspiring works that more explicitly adopted the form of religious iconography. From 2020 to the present, through his Icon and Neo-Icon projects, he has faithfully translated the experiences and emotions drawn from his children’s growth into his art. By capturing moments like a child’s endearing tongue slips while learning language or the lovingly prepared toy meal served to him during play, Cho Hyunik pays homage to the fleeting nature of these irreplaceable times and the profound purity of a child’s innocent perspective.

Pouring his heart and soul into parenting day and night, Cho Hyunik occasionally felt as though he bore the weight of guilt. This sense of reckoning was sparked by the late Kwon Jeong-saeng’s poignant story Mother Pheasant, which recounted the harrowing sacrifice of a mother pheasant and became a profound catalyst for his self-reflection. "Could I truly lay down my life for my children?" he often questioned himself, ultimately concluding that a mother's sacrifice for her child mirrors the devotion of a martyr. This realization led him to channel his reflections on the righteous duties as a parent and his own self-examination into the work Neo Icon: A Story of Mother Pheasant (2022).

Works such as Neo Icon: Family Photo - One Halloween Day (2024) reflect Cho Hyunik’s more explicit adoption of the Christian iconographic style. In this piece, the four family members, dressed casually in slippers as they enjoy a Halloween party, are depicted against the backdrop of a circular halo—a symbol of divine sanctity. Though it was just an ordinary day spent by a family, for Cho Hyunik, it was a moment more sacred than anything else in the world. The halo was rendered through a collage of golden wallpaper, maximizing light reflection to emphasize the shimmer. His clever technique makes the family, smiling brightly in the painting, shine even more radiantly.

At times, a harsh society thrusts situations upon him that contradict his best intentions, turning him into an accidental and harmless sinner. Yet, for Cho Hyunik, who has always lived his life on his own terms and revered it, artistic creation remains a process of solidifying and clarifying his faith in life. Today, as ever, he silently continues to paint, fulfilling his duty.