Veteran artist pays homage to his mentor Paik Nam-june in `Multiple Dialogue`

(ATTN: photos available)
By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- Korean-American multimedia artist Kang Ik-joong,
considered one of the most faithful successors of Korea's late video art master
Paik Nam-june, is to pay homage to his mentor in an upcoming exhibition opening
Thursday.
In his one-year-long exhibition "Multiple Dialogue," Kang will unveil as many as
60,000 works he produced during the past two decades. It is also a belated sequel
to the 1994 exhibition "Multiple/Dialogue" at the Whitney Museum of American Art,
in which he and Paik worked together on a number of installations.
The display will include installation pieces as well as drawings and paintings
--"Champion (1994)," a collaboration with Paik, "Study for Multiple Dialogue --
Infinity (2009)" and "Dream Flies with Energy (1985)."
Kang, 49, earned fame at home and abroad after receiving the special jury prize
at the Venice Biennale in 1997. He is currently in Seoul to hold an art
performance on the exhibition's opening night Thursday. During the performance,
he will hand out bibimbap (Korean mixed rice) to audiences in commemoration of
Paik.
"Paik, my mentor, often mentioned bibimbap, which is made with various
ingredients mixed together, saying an artist should see the world with his own
eyes and make a story about it using various tools," Kang said. "I hope the
exhibition will serve as a chance for viewers to make contact with Korea's nature
and spirit through the collaboration between Paik and me."
Paik, who passed away in January 2006 at the age of 74, took the art world by
storm with his interpretation of mass media technologies. While his main stage
was New York, Paik always maintained that Eastern philosophies were at the core
of his thinking; considering both machines and human beings as part of nature.
The exhibition, free of charge, will run for one year until Feb. 7, 2010 at the
National Museum of Contemporary Art (www.moca.go.kr).
hayney@yna.co.kr
(END)