Hair-raising stories

Artist Hwang Jai-hyoung, left, stands with a portrait of a miner that the artist created with hair at the Gana Art Center in central Seoul. Hwang, 65, a famous artist of the minjung movement, or populist art, is best known for his “soil paintings” of landscapes and people in the mining villages in Taebaek, Gangwon, where the artist has lived for more than three decades. At his solo show, titled “One Hundred Thousand Hairs,” running until Sunday at Gana are his new works are made of hair that he obtained from barber shops and his neighbors. Among the works is “Is There Still Land to Travel,” right, which depicts “people in a humble village banished by the industrialized society facing a flood and failing to find elsewhere to go,” according to the artist. “In many cultures, there has been the belief that people’s hair obtains a part of their energy and spirit. By creating works with my neighbors’ hair, I want to keep their personal histories on record,” the artist said. For more details, visit www.ganaart.com or call (02) 720-1020. [MOON SO-YOUNG]