Faculty

Young Min Moon

Foundations / Interdisciplinary Studies
FAC 455

Phone: (413) 577-0624
email

Incongruent: Contemporary Art from South Korea

Kim Yong Tae, Joo Jae Hwan, Yong Soon Min, Yoon Joo Kyong, Chan Kyong Park, Koh Seung Wook, Roh Jae Oon, Kim Sang Gil, Jo Seub.


Curated by Young Min Moon.

Incongruent introduces some of the sociopolitical forms of South Korean art made since the 1980s. Centered on a small contingent of artists who have been sensitive to the collective memories and social upheavals in recent decades, the exhibition probes the Post Cold-War politics that still grip the peninsula. The exhibition is thus based upon the historical events that are fraught with violence, tension, and uncertainty, such as the disasters of the Korean War, the Gwanjgu Uprising in 1980, the aftermath of military dictatorship, and the relationship between two Koreas and the U.S. The artists’ comments on hegemony and ideology are grounded in everyday life in South Korea, and despite the generational gap, they share a critical understanding of modernism, Western culture, and the intervention of the US in Korean politics.

The artists are committed to the task of recuperating both collective trauma and individual memories. Their works refuse to turn the ruptures of modernity and history of oppression into oblivion. Rather than seeking consolation, empathy, or closure, they are instead inscribing a new history through questioning, investigation, and analysis. In light of the current US foreign policies toward Iraq and North Korea, the exhibition provides a context for discussion and understanding of the critical issues from their local perspective. The Korean-English bilingual book was published in 2006 by Hyunsil Cultural Studies, Seoul, Korea, in conjunction with the exhibition of the same title and originally presented at Richard F. Brush Gallery, St. Lawrence University in 2005. The exhibition subsequently traveled to Liebling Center for Film, Photography, and Video at Hampshire College and Harnett Gallery at University of Rochester. The exhibition was made possible by the grants from the Freeman Foundation and Arts Council Korea; the book was funded by Arts Council Korea.

Biography

Young Min Moon received an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts and an Ed.M from Harvard University. Moon has exhibited his work at University of California Irvine; Cold City Gallery, Toronto; Carpenter Center for Visual Art, Harvard University; 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA; Kumho Museum of Art, Gana Art Space, and Alternative Space Pool, Seoul, Korea. Moon received grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Canada Council, and Ontario Art Council. In 2006 Moon published a Korean-English bilingual catalogue (Hyunsil Cultural Studies, Seoul) for his curatorial project Incongruent: Contemporary Art from South Korea, an exhibition he has organized for the Richard F. Brush Gallery at St. Lawrence University. The exhibition traveled to Liebling Center for Film, Photography and Video at Hampshire College and Harnett Gallery at University of Rochester in December 2007. He is assistant professor in the Department of Art, Architecture and Art History at University of Massachusetts Amherst..