Foreword to “#12. Mr Misang & Crypto World”

Foreword to the “Foreword to #12”

One unassuming evening as I was writing up documents at my corporate job, riffling though loads of paperwork, I was tapped for a sudden task. Quite ironically on many levels, I was to write up an English-translated foreword for an emerging digital NFT artist, Mr Misang, whose artworks center around cartoonish-pop satire of modern Korean working culture.

Housed in a 12-part series entitled “Modern Life is Rubbish” (“MLIR”), most of Mr Misang’s illustration-turned-animations highlight the dystopic loss of individuality in modern society — a worker’s hope-draining assimilation into the technology collective — each piece wryly topped with sprinkles and neon-bright colors that distract from the scene’s irrepressible gloom. (It’s worth noting that “Misang” stands for “unknown” or “anonymous” in Korean).

Crammed subways, robotically deranged workers, glowing signs pointing to the (inevitable?) revolving doors of consumer capitalism — some of Mr Misang’s animated caricatures ring of the all-too familiar scenes from Steve Cutts’s “Happiness,” an animated short I’ve often sent to friends working long, dreary hours at white-collar office jobs. (Note to self: I should’ve sent a copy to myself.)