Jipyeong Kim Plays with Traditional Imagery

In the solo exhibition, JAENYEODEOKGO (A TALENTED WOMAN HAS HIGHER VIRTUE), at the small arts space Hapjeongjigu, Jipyeong Kim subverts the confucian ideal that virtuous women must lack talent. Kim clearly draws on multiple Korean and western visual references — such as traditional folding screens, Goryeo landscape painting, and minimalist painting—in a way that feels playful and almost humorous, inviting the viewer to also be in on the joke.

For example, there is this set of three paintings that using this vivid “Rothko” red in a style that reminds me early 20th Century minimalist painting like De Stijl or Suprematism. The artist is making a sort of joke by referencing styles that are so important to the “western canon” and putting them in such an overtly traditional medium.

The artist also plays with traditional Korean media in the two folding screens. In the work on the first floor, women in traditional dress are depicted each on one panel, but it is as if the screen has been cut in half, leaving on the legs and ankles visible on the screen. Another screen exhibited on the basement floor has been stripped bare, appearing more like a minimalist sculpture than a functional and decorative household object.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a vividly colorful that to me looks like a cross between buddhist and taoist spirituality from Goryeo era paintings and neon, psychedelic “Burning Man” style spirituality. The craggy mountains and misty atmosphere draw on a long tradition of east Asian landscape ink paintings, while the neon, almost tie-dye colors and “tribal” patterns remind me of a more Venice Beach style of spirituality.

Jipyeong Kim’s twist on this overtly traditional material that is closely tied to confucianism, the artist cleverly subverts the confucian ideals and injects her own feminist perspective.

