SIGIarts » Dongguri’s Mysterious Smile

exhibition info

Dongguri’s Mysterious Smile

All of a sudden we find ourselves face to face with a series of enchanting landscapes; strong primary colors mixed with pastel nuances applied to shapes of animals, flowers, and bamboo-like stems. They resemble depictions of oriental landscapes married with cartoons, or the style that the Taiwan critic and curator Victoria Lu calls “Animamix”. We can also find the presence of a human-like figure with a flat body, consisting of black lines and plane, with a smiling, circular face and eyes made of dots. There are a few black spikes on his head, representing his hair. The figure looks friendly, cheerful, and nice.

That is thus the impression we are bound to get as we observe the works by the South Korean, Young-ju-born artist Kwon Kisoo. The works by the graduate of Hongik University, Seoul, are present in the forms of paintings on canvas, print works, animations, stainless steel sculptures, as well as installation works. He presents the central figure of Dongguri, a cartoon character of his imagination, with two-dimensional characteristics. The head is made of a simple black circle. Dongguri is invariably present in his works, playing as the central role in each of the works. In 2006, Kisoo explained to the critic Lee Young-ju that he created the character fortuitously when he intended to draw an orchid using the traditional techniques of Korean painting. “The name ‘Dongguri’ was derived from the Korean words ‘Donggurami’, meaning circle, and ‘guri’, a compound formation often attributed to humans and animals,” explains Kisoo in an e-mail interview. (Read also my interview with Kisoo on this page).

According to the critic Young-ju, the Dongguri character or symbol represents the artist as well as the modern human, and constitutes an effort of icon construction. Meanwhile, another curator, Kim Soo-jung, noted in 2008 that the comic and smiling figure of Dongguri is reflective of the warm and subtle expressions of the Korean people, like the Korean Buddha sculptures that look pensive with subtle smiles, unlike the Buddha sculptures in China and Japan with their sweet and enchanting smiles. The Dongguri character, therefore, serves as a kind of allegory of the world that surrounds the artist, and Dongguri’s smile might serve as a consideration about the Korean Significant, explained Soo-jung.

In Kisoo’s works, the Dongguri is presented in a variety of gestures. We can see the Dongguri riding an animal, on a boat on a lake, in the midst of trees and blossoming flowers, or flying in the sky. In some of the works, the character appears in more than just one figure, almost omnipresent in one plane of work. The themes are rooted in the personal experiences of the artist in the context of the Korean contemporary life and culture, whether with regards to the Eastern tradition or the global popular culture. The writer Kim Sun-hee noted in 2010 how the elements of Kisoo’s works are often inspired by the traditional Korean watercolor paintings, especially with the symbols of “Sansui” or landscape paintings.

We might observe the works depicting unique water reflections, as in the works made in 2010: A little boat is floating lightly on the boundless expanse of water and A little boat-flowers flame-bronze and the three works in the series As Old as Time: black, red, and blue, and the two Penumbra works, Penumbra: silver and Penumbra: bronze. The works manage to present novel interpretations of the Sansui painting, presenting it in a more popular style with enchanting colors and characteristic abstractions, while maintaining their strength with the spiritual themes. We can feel the calmness of the water with the reflections. The blossoming flowers present in all of his works do not necessarily serve as decorative elements, but rather as a kind of signification to strengthen the atmosphere or the theme as the depiction of such landscape is often rooted in the ancient philosophies of China and Korea.

No less interesting are the sculptures that Ki-soo made, with their ability to present simple albeit strong shapes as they interact with the space in which they are displayed. The artist constructs a certain flexibility of context as he presents the Dongguri and his friend. The space adds new meanings to his sculptures, which were titled Pick-up Stars, Flower is Flower, and Sound of Wind. Such extra meanings might owe to the sculptures’ flat character, simplicity, and less than solid appearance, which liberate them from the burden of space that might befall other three-dimensional works.

We can see that the Dongguri is always enjoying the situations he is in, and he is almost invariably accompanied by a cat-like creature. Dongguri is a simple but not innocent—much less naive—figure. He sits on a cube, on a boat, on the branch of a leafy tree; emerges from a hole; flies in the sky like a bird. The Dongguri seems to have a rather peculiar attitude with regards to certain situations. He and his friend the cat seem to enjoy the various situations; their smiles hid a significant meaning and might even give rise to questions and feelings of wonderment, like Mona Lisa and her enigmatic smile. Does the meaning of the smile is related with Kisoo’s stance as he deals with the issues in the global world?

The symbol or character of the Dongguri is not like the little-girl figure in the works by the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, which tends to appear moody, depending on the artist’s mood regarding certain conditions. Is it possible that Kisoo has also been influenced by the Superflat manifesto as proclaimed by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami? In Superflat, the world is depicted in a flat characteristic, with lines involving the anime and manga styles. Murakami defines Superflat in a wide sense, involving a variety of subjects and working in critical manners with regards to the culture of consumerism and sexual fetishism that are often found in the post-war culture of Japan.

According to Victoria Lu, on the surface Kisoo’s visual explorations seem to be related with those of Murakami, as they are both rooted in their traditional art forms; one of them being influenced by the classic Korean painting style, the other by Japanese classic paintings. Murakami created the Kaikai-kiki characters that share some similarities with the Dongguri character, albeit through the use of different drawing techniques. Both artists, however, use images with specific symbols. These symbols form the main characteristic of their works. Lu seems to agree with the art critic and writer Kim Sun-hee, who sees Kisoo’s works as constituting advanced explorations with regards to the traditional themes and values that have been adapted and married with forms of contemporary art, or being presented as “Animamix Art”.

The exhibition of works by Kisoo in Indonesia serves as a sign that the Animamix Art tendency has become a global and cosmopolitan art development. The Animamix art constitutes a new tendency in art practices whose method is influenced by the pop art movement (it is often called neo-pop), while maintaining a link with traditional values. The syncretism or the hybridization of cultures, between the past and the present, gives rise to visual ideas that might only arise from the artist’s efforts to understand those cultural values. Animamix artists come from a range of backgrounds. Victoria Lu once explained: “The Animamix artists of the twenty-first century are not just the people who are engaged in creating animation and comics products; rather, Animamix artists are found in all the fields of the creative industry.”

In Indonesia, such symptoms could be seen in early 2000s, when young artists or creative industry workers such as graphic designers, illustrators, and animators started to make a strong appearance. In Yogyakarta, we had artists such as those in the Apotik Komik group, Eko Nugroho who started the alternative comics movement of Daging Tumbuh, and other artists often called the “Agro-Pop” artists. A similar situation could be seen in Bandung where there were many young artists working as designers for clothing outlets. In Jakarta the situation has been more diverse as there are groups of graffiti artists, illustrators, web designers, bloggers, and film makers. They often conduct their activities on the street, in public spaces, as well as in alternative art spaces such as ruangrupa, so much so that at the end of the day, art in its latest incarnation has become a fluid realm.

With the presence of works by Kwon Kisoo, it is expected that a reflective space might arise, one that is critical toward the development of art practices categorized as “Animamix art” or “lowbrow”. According to my observations, there are only a few Indonesian artists have taken a similar path with Kwon Kisoo, exploring and employing the local cultural values. With strong traditional cultural values and art forms such as the wayang puppets, Indonesia has a huge potential to give rise to works with a solid foundation. There have been only a few artists who are willing to explore the local values. A case in point is the artist Radi Arwinda who has successfully adapted forms of traditional art by using the patterns of the ancient court of Cirebon in his artistic exploration. Radi Arwinda then combines the borrowed patterns with his self-portraits. Apart from being enchanting, such presentations give rise to novel values that are beneficial for the development of art itself.

Rifky Effendy

E-mail interview between Rifky Effendy and Kwon Kisoo, conducted in June 2011

Rifky Effendy:

I’ve read some of the curatorial texts and those written by art critics, which have been published on your site. I think there has been a lot of information about your works since 2006. Still, I would like to pose some more questions to confirm some points. What does Dongguri mean in English? How did the character come to being? Had it been intended to be applied in narrative comics?

Kwon Kisoo:

I created Dongguri fortuitously, when I was drawing. It came to being spontaneously, and even its name as well as its objective had been determined in spontaneous ways. The name Dongguri comes from the words ‘Donggurami’, meaning circle, and ‘guri’, a compound formation often attributed to humans and animals. The universe, represented in the circular globe, can be seen as representative of the cyclic life of humans, like a rolling stone, with ups and downs. In the society, life moves in cycles, too.

Many journalists and critics often see the Dongguri character as a character for children; that is not correct. My works are entirely adult works. I draw using the traditional ways and eventually discovered the Dongguri character.

My work is not merely works of pop art, either. For example, I have many works using bright colors as seen in the Chinese bamboo paintings. Essentially, the colors tell stories of political and social lives, about life and death, winner and loser, power and betrayal, etc. But perhaps because my works resemble pictures intended for children, many people interpret my works differently. I don’t deny my works as works of pop art, but that is only on the surface. I prefer to see Dongguri as a symbol instead of as a character.

Rifky Effendy:

In the works to be displayed in Jakarta, we see many depictions of boats, water elements, and water reflections. Can you tell us a bit about that? Do they have anything to do with life values that you have in relation to your surroundings (for example the traditional Korean values), or are they universal in nature? Do your works invariably contain certain messages?

Kwon Kisoo:

The boats are from my previous series: Time (2007 – 2008), early works that have also been presented in a big exhibition to introduce the topic of time. All of them had been inspired by Chinese philosophy. In Korea, stories of fishermen are still often talked about. The narratives of Bamboo and Fishermen are stories from ancient China or Korea, but the stories are not exclusive for people living in these two countries. In other places as well, bamboos and fishermen are considered important because they are representative of a waiting life, going up and down in the midst of the waves.

The water and boat will move along with the wave, but at the end of the day, they remain the same, the water, river, the sea that represent a boundless expanse of space. The reflection geometry constitutes ideas that present novel things as we see our reflections in the mirror. The traditional works of “bamboo forest of colors” in the horizon series are more about the ego, as represented by the poles. We might see our reflections on the river and find something new.

The modern world might find it difficult to digest such narratives; the (digital) world and its phenomena are realities that are more ambitious and illusory; they are difficult to separate. Other works containing the Chinese philosophy, like the “butterfly dreams”, also have subjects that look different but actually mean the same.

Rifky Effendy:

Apart from the paintings, sculptures, and installations, have you also made animation works?

Kwon Kisoo:

Yes. My first animation works were made in 2002 for Mori Art Museum, Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum, and also the art exhibition at the Jenju International Film Festival. It has been screened in short animation screening events and used as ringtone or content offered by a mobile phone company, and screened on the South Korea television station (KBS).

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