HYUNJIN BEK

The ‘work song’ in the title of this exhibition, Work Song: Soil, Mattress and Waves, does not refer to a common work song that is sung to bring up the work efficiency of one’s labour, but rather implies to ‘another kind of work song’ that is composed to maintain silence. In this exhibition, the artist’s new paintings of over sixty pieces that take up the gallery’s large walls as well as his installation artwork will be displayed, along with the performance Musical: Permanent Spring which will be presented every week.

Bek Hyunjin has been actively performing as an artist across diverse areas, including painter, installation artist, performance artist, musician, actor, director, and graphic designer. His painting, which he carries out intuitively as if practicing asceticism, is an important medium that allows us to take a glance at the matrix of his adaptability and construction ability as a versatile artist. The reason is that on his canvas, his ‘gesture/action’ that penetrates painter, singer, performance artist and actor overlaps with his ‘poetic/musical rhythm’ and appears in harmony of the pure abstract and illustrative designs. The paintings in this exhibition can either be independent, or be set into a combination of two or more, and either way, they exist and function as a component of the whole. In other words, each painting presented in this exhibition is a whole as well as a subset. The linen canvas in certain size (93x93cm) works as a unit; the canvas may grow larger or smaller by multiples and there is not a set manual for installation. The paintings can be combined or arranged in random or with intention, and among them, some do not have left, right, top or bottom. These paintings produced through the artist’s intuitive and impromptu process fill up the exhibition walls in an organic yet unbalanced manner, creating a unique mess. The important factors of the installation piece Musical: Permanent Spring are the mural and the song, and the artist carries out the performance of the same name inside the artwork. Once the performance begins, the installation functions as a stage, and once the performance ends, it functions again as an artwork. Performance Musical: Permanent Spring blatantly rejects a sumptuous and spectacle show and creates a silent and monotonous mood. The score used in this bold musical will be a thread that weaves the pieces that are loosely lined-up through the artistic heredity of Bek Hyunjin.

Bek Hyunjin has held numerous solo exhibitions in various places including Korea, UK, Germany, Italy, and has participated in group exhibitions of major art institutions such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Plateau Samsung Museum of Art, Art Sonje Center, Sungkok Art Museum in Seoul, Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, and Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna. In 2017, Bek was chosen as the nominee/sponsored artist for the ‘Korea Art Prize 2017’ of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Working actively as a solo singer song writer, a member of Korea’s first generation indie band Uhuhboo Project and a project-based music group Bahngbek, and as an actor of great personality appearing in movies The Day He Arrives, Gyeongju, Keys to the Heart, and in drama Children of Nobody at the same time, Bek is steadily practicing his omnidirectional artistic activities.