The time is out of Joint
Jinmyung Lee (Curator)
‘Zeboriskie Point’, the fourth solo-exhibition of Byounglae Park held in Boan Inn is a project exhibition with a significant meaning. It is a magnificent project that visually tries to overlap the development process of Korean history under the name of colonization, modernization, industrialization, and neo- liberalism, focusing on the peculiar historicity over one particular city. However, to understand this exhibition generally, we have to clearly consider who Byounglae Park is, in what thought he is im- mersed, and to which aesthetic character he is belonged, rather than analyze and explain this single video.
Byounglae Park, who was born in 1974, is one of a few artists of my age I know. I have a vivid memory of serving the absolute monarchy Park Jung Hee in my childhood. I remember that I was moved passionately by Japanese animation on television, contrary to this, I had an unpleasant feeling on anticommunism animation.
By the time, it was the early stage of industrialization so there was bleakness which the unmarred clean nature coexisted with severely contaminated oily river and I never forget. I also remember that, when I was 7 years old, my parents had a serious talk all night, lowering their voices, and I later noticed that they had talked over the movement in Gwangju. Our parents turned to Catholic since there is nothing to rely on.
The world became comparatively interesting when I just entered the elementary school. Dress code was liberalized in school, Pro sports industry emerged, and not long after we could see the Olympic Games in Korea. The economy was overheating and we could eat all kinds of exotic western foods. Behind the fantasy of western food, inner peace was driven away with labor strikes, protests from the students, a self-burning suicide, political issues of that time. While the heart of cheapy American culture, pornography and anticommunism movies that were supported by politics of McCarthyism, was pounding, I had a mixed feeling that I felt deceived and uncomforted. Anyway, I still want to taste cheap pleasures of that time again. However, Byounglae Park was surprisingly convinced when I said this, and I was so excited that we, who are the same generation and has the same occupation, share the same point of view.
Childhood, springtime of life, the east as in Yin and Yang, Five Elements, just waking up in the twilight of the trees that extend energy, is an invaluable, yet brilliant, and a great time of life which deter- mines the rest of one’s life. In 1980s, D. Reagan became a ruling government. He was the first presi- dent who takes a conservative and hard line. He made the British Cabinet and the Anglo-American cooperation with the Thatcherite.
The ideology of the Reagan administration was based on McCarthyism and this robust advocating spread throughout the world. Tough attitude toward the union, a lower priced corporate tax, budget cuts over public welfare, an obscurantist policy including sports and poplar films, billboards pop mu- sic, pornography, etc, warfavor attitude, a financial surplus from the sales of arms, forming a new upper class through the reinforcement of monetary system, a firm line toward Eastern Europe, and a strong government and a weak people were their policies, and Korean government also benchmarked their seemingly perfect success in their platinum age. We all know that its appearance was successfulbut was suffering inside. The majority neglected the suffering of people who didn’t chase the gain and kept their faith, think- ing that everyone can win this game of good rules because of the heating economy and the aspect of development. Having attending universities during 1990s, we witnessed the panic followed by the termination of the Cold War between 1989 and 1991. The decline of folk art and stained modernism with shame and deterioration, western philosophy that cut into half were witnessed, and free love, fashionism, dandyism, consumption for pleasure, obses- sion, nervousness, the quick death sentence on Karl Marx, impatience toward French Structuralism were derived from our seniors and professors. They only followed and adored the appearance of Japanese avant-garde artists, neglecting the spirit of them, and just copied the animation Japanese see, ate the foods they eat. I went to Japan following Dasai Osamu and Murakami Ryu, Byounglae Park with whom I hanged around flew away to Germany, admiring Hans Haacke, Joshep Beuys. By the time I came back to Korea, Korean government chose neoliberal line, oppressed by the gigantic look of Pax Americana. This beast called neo-liberalism probably started from the management ideas of Jack Welch, the former chairman of G.E in 1981: ‘Shareholder value’s placed in the highest good. So, fundamental industries and public investment must be cut off. People must be fired. Reduce the wages and welfare costs by hiring contract workers and share the benefits to the shareholders. And to save wages, give up building domestic factories and hire the third world workers. In order to get more profits, faith is just a show. Who said that art and culture is a flower stemmed from the root of politics and economy. Indeed, critical and resistant artists turned to visually hedonism, and money- friendly and conservative artists came up to the majority. Although there were some trials but they only were limited to personal experience and narratives, they could not extend their works to the society. Omniscient Homeric storytellers are extinct. There were numerous individual artists in the huge-discourses-disappeared era. Wherever we go around the world, we no longer find out the one like Hans Haacke, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, Chris Burden, and Paik Nam June. Byounglae Park’s ‘Zeboriskie Point’ is a bold decision considering this background in mind. This title is kind of pun to ‘Zebriskie Point’, a film directed by famous Italian movie director Michelangelo Anto- nioni in 1970. And this film is spectacular that mixed daily world with the virtual and ideal world. This movie traditionally follows the conclusion of ‘Erehwon’, a novel by Samuel Butler in the 19th century. Does Utopia really exist in this world? If it does, where is it? To these fundamental questions, he an- swered ‘nowhere’, stating reversely the word ‘Erehwon’. If Utopia exists, he added, that is ‘now here’, setting 3 letters apart from the word ‘nowhere’. Byounglae Park and I are always sure that we are the young who believe the progress in history in our heart. Thus, we admire the ideas of John Locke and Hegel. I am going to show you the sentences that moved me one day. I am a follower of the spirit of the enlightenment in 18th century, and I admit that I am one who still sticks to the ‘banal’ idea, the human progress. I reckon Hegel’s idea that history is the progression to the spirit of freedom is the essence of his philosophy, not the idea that nation is the highest morality. ‘Zeboriskie Point’, which had been taken place in Gunsan, Korea as a long-term project, itself is the sedimentary body of all aspects including historical images that Byounglae Park overlapped with the space that are corrupted and ruined by the reclamation. Byounglae Park traces all the evidences of 100years and puts them into the value of ‘now and here’ on the stage of Shumitomo Bank(Bank of Chosun) and house of enemy property in Japanese ruling area of Korea, Plantation run by Japanese, the military camp of the U.S Army, a town of volunteers from U.S forces and prostitutes, land with scars from industrialization, and Saemangeum reclaimed land that is a symbol of competitive system under neoliberalism. The colonial exploitation center, Shumimoto Bank turned into a nightclub in 80s
and experienced military hedonistic culture of that time, and changed into an office of a shipping company that manages the exports to China, and now, it is abandoned. The tentative alien ‘Zebo’ collects all the historical images of Gunsan and puts into the future space, the desert of Saeman- geum. Here is some symbolic act accompanied. The symbolic act reminds of the act of hunting and gathering in ancient time and overlaps the children’s play in 20th century. Throughout the last play, which sticks fly into bright sky, audiences will be invited to somewhere between hope and despair. That ‘flying stick’ must be freedom.
The reason why the title of introduction of Park’s exhibition came from a line of Hamlet here. “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!” There is a way to get through the present’s chaos that losses its direction being out of joint: just trust the rationality of history in a long-term. When you indeed take into account long history in one direction, you will get the intuition that comes comprehensively. Byounglae Park’s ‘Zeboriskie Point’ reflects on the 100 years of time and answers that the present time is better than the past. That is the primary awakening of a progressive intellectuals, Byounglae Park. Moreover, Byounglae Park’s ultimate works are now in the process towards the preparation for another 100 years. In this sense, I want Byounglae Park to be a genuine healer of the history. And now, his neutral aesthetic video style must come again as fiercer aesthetic completion.