Untitled

After decades of authoritarian rule in South Korea, the prodemocracy Minjung movement arose in the 1970s and culminated in the 1980s with the violent suppression of protests. Nevertheless, it paved the way for constitutional changes and South Korea’s first democratic elections, in 1987. Artists mirrored the political divide; realism was embraced by Minjung artists, while abstraction was seen as conservative. Kim Hong Joo’s art defies categorization and captures the uncertainty of the era. Here, the split composition might call to mind the partition of Korea by the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). In the upper half, the floating, silk-screened photographs of new and old buildings reflect societal upheaval from rapid modernization. In the lower half, the reservoir’s shape resembles the Korean peninsula but is also an upside-down anamorphic portrait of the artist, infusing the land with a human presence.