Hakgojae Gallery is pleased to present Art and Words 2020, from July 1st (Wed) to July 31st (Fri), 2020, at Hakgojae Gallery, Space 1, and Space 2. With 16 members of Reality and Utterance participating, this exhibition refers to the title and attitude of Art and Words, the bulletin published to record their exhibition, Images of Happiness, at Deoksu Museum (Seoul) in 1982.
The artists published Art and Words in aspiration for it to ‘be of help for a wider understanding of art, and become the foundation for the exchange of opinions.’ The bulletin includes artist notes in search for the meaning of ‘happiness’ in personal and communal life the members witnessed and examined as young artists in the 1980s, and 11 essays containing their individual critical minds regarding the reality at the time.
The artists, who lamented the ‘obsolete state’ of art, holding onto the question, “is it adequate for artists to disregard reality?” dreamt of a world in which art, restricted of free speech, can wholly regain its true role, that is, communication, to vividly exist in the context of life. To pursue ‘art that can endure the climate of reality’ instead of ‘art entombed by the force of the picture screen itself,’ and to recover the ‘genuine and enthusiastic function of art,’ the artists did not avoid outspoken debates but associated with it instead. Aspects of introspection regarding art and efforts towards the reality by the artists seeking innovative visions of art in concord with the new age are immanent in the 1982 bulletin, Art and Words.
Today, in which frequent remarks through personally run media are routinized, ‘art’ and ‘words’ are in relation with the world with a different reputation and existence from the past. While refining methodologies of art and establishing artistic viewpoints in the context of their individual artistic practices so far, the artists have been holding on to the attitude of creation that supports art closely connected to the scene of life. What does the reality of the 2000s these creators are facing look like? What will art say here and now, and what kind of art will words materialize into? This exhibition is the site for utterance about ‘art and words,’ still valid as ever, through works encompassing their utterances about the youth’s reality in the 1980s and utterances towards the reality of 2020, selected by the artists who operated as members of Reality and Utterance.
