[천민정] 'Dreaming Unification':Peace, 1월 30일

[천민정 개인전] “Dreaming Unification : Protest Peace.] 뉴욕 Ethan Cohen Gallery(251 W 19th St, New York, NY 10011)에서 December 10, 2020-January 30, 2021까지 열린다.

“Dreaming unification is protesting peace as the new global condition.” Ethan Cohen Gallery is honored to present Mina Cheon aka Kim Il Soon’s solo exhibition “Dreaming Unification : Protest Peace.” As we face our challenging times with the coronavirus pandemic and a stressful post-election, our countries remain divided. Today’s resounding words from the US President-elect Joe Biden are “not to divide, but to unify.” And, we do this with our social consciousness intact, with social justice and anti-racism efforts in the forefront, while dreaming unification and protesting peace.

계가 행복하다. 한반도가 평화로우면 세계가 평화롭다 이제 모든 지구촌의 문제는 한반도에 달렸다>

In her dream world, artist Mina Cheon's North Korean art persona, aka "Kim Il Soon," paints the Korean national third flag, the Unification Flag, in a new body of work of flag figurations, Dreaming Unification : Protest Peace painting series. Tapping into her stream of unconsciousness to promote a future of unity and peace, flags are raised in this exhibition to recall past interKorean efforts including the Olympics, athletic teamwork, Arirang Mass Games, and other public events that celebrated “One Korea.” This is done as a protest for peace in contrast to the discouraging chaos and canceled peace talks in the Peninsula. New spectacles arise with ongoing threats from North Korea with the blowing up of InterKorean Liaison Office building at Kaesong on June 16th and the 75th Anniversary Worker’s Party military celebration on October 10th parading new ICBMs just this year 2020. 

<코로나 시대 남북이 평화로 가는 최고의 환경이 조성되다. 한반도가 안전하면 세계가 안전하다. 한반도가 행복하면 세

For the past decade, Kim Il Soon has been painting in the socialist realism propaganda style, hot pink drip abstract expressionism, and in New IKB conceptual paintings (with custom-paint inspired by Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue). As she masters Western art styles and dreams for liberation within the canvas as well as from the North Korean regime, the new series as “protesting peace” is done with stencils and spray paint and sumi ink, hitting the cord of North Korean most revered painting style, Joseonhwa (sumi ink, rice paper hanji, traditional oriental painting technique applied to North Korean propaganda contents) and the cosmopolitan expression of protest art style using stencil, spray, tagging.

Another exclusive viewing in the exhibition is from Cheon’s personal art collection, a 2019 painting by an anonymous North Korean painter. In the hands of the artist, Cheon took the liberty to extend the subtitle, “North-South Declaration of Partnership: Standing before the Unification Flag” based on the visuals and literature that writes, “We, people(s) must stand in our confirmed stance with respect and sincerity towards declaring partnership.” This painting represents the ongoing asynchronic communication between the artist and the North Koreans and that dreaming unification is from both sides of the Koreas.

While the North Korean hermit kingdom announces its presence by blowing up the Liaison Office at Kaesong and continues to strong-arm nuclear arsenals, we know this much, there are citizens who desire communication with the outside world and risk their lives for basic human rights such as access to information and foreign media. Artist Mina Cheon’s exhibition responds to all Koreans, and highlights the demand for peace in a form of a “protest” in oppositional language to a “rally.” Please join in the efforts and view her new body of work that is about global dreaming for unification and protesting peace for surviving the chaos and strain of our daily lives.