Forget the Landscapes: Rediscovering Young Gong Seong-hun’s Experimental Art
Creatrip Team
21 days ago
A new exhibition “Double Blind” at Kumho Museum in Sagandong reexamines Gong Seong-hun’s early 1990s experimental works, showing a side of the late artist many have forgotten. Although Gong is often remembered for his moody landscape paintings from the 2000s, the show focuses on his pioneering use of technology and new media in Korea’s art scene. Trained in painting at Seoul arts schools, Gong later studied electronic engineering at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, and used that technical knowledge to build sensor-driven kinetic pieces and electromechanical installations. A central recreated work, the “Blind piece,” features blinds painted with fluorescent paint and fitted with electric motors; the original was lost, but it has been remade from his sketches and plans. The exhibition brings together previously unseen drawings, design sketches, archival videos, and records of interactive works like the 1992 piece “Art Is Expensive,” highlighting the artist’s creative process—notes on lens sizes, projection methods, and engineering visits reveal his pragmatic problem-solving. Curator Yoo Ji-won arranged archives and objects so the materials function as part of the artwork, blurring the line between archive and piece. Also on view is a large charcoal plaster study critiquing entrance exam art education, “Plaster Study for the 50th Anniversary of Liberation” (1995). The show runs through July 19.
