[INTERVIEW] 'I had to rebel': Artist Sung Neung Kyung explains art as form of defiance

Arts & Design

Published: 21 Nov. 2023, 15:41 Updated: 24 Nov. 2023, 09:49

[INTERVIEW] 'I had to rebel': Artist Sung Neung Kyung explains art as form of defiance

Sung Neung Kyung [LEHMANN MAUPIN]

At age 79, Sung Neung Kyung has finally reached his heyday.

This year has been especially eventful for the avant-garde artist as he starred in a handful of solo exhibitions in Seoul that highlight his half-century-long career, at Gallery Hyundai, Zaha Museum and Baik Art.

Earlier this month, at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, Sung was present for one of his major performances — “Reading newspaper” — as part of the museum’s exhibition on Korean experimental art from the 1960s and ‘70s.

“Reading newspaper” sees the artist read aloud articles from daily newspapers while cutting them out and holding up the paper's skeletal remains. As a pioneering figure of Korean conceptual art, Sung has been experimenting with a wide range of mediums — even his own body — to express a certain theme or concept.

Sung has been performing “Reading newspaper” since the 1970s, which was initially meant to satirize the strict censorship in the media during former president Park Chung Hee’s authoritarian regime. At the time, newspapers were prohibited from criticizing the government and there were harsh bans on who could be on television, especially people like men with long hair.

Sung Neung Kyung performs "Reading newspaper" at Seoul Gallery in 1976 [LEHMANN MAUPIN]

“It was my way of reinspecting what had already been inspected,” Sung told the Korea JoongAng Daily in an interview last month.

Besides his use of the newspaper, Sung is also known for his “botched art,” in which he intentionally distorts certain fields of vision when he takes Polaroid pictures or doodles directly over snippets of newspaper photographs.

In addition to his current Guggenheim group exhibit, next year Sung will be holding his first solo exhibition outside of Seoul, at the Lehmann Maupin art gallery in New York.

Sung was modest about his achievements and his newfound fame, though his eyes continuously shone like he was just emerging as a rookie in the art scene.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Q. What does perfection mean to you? Why are you so focused on ruining your art?

A. Can anything ever be perfect? I think it’s impossible, especially for art. If you’re asking whether anything can be perfect, technique-wise or concept-wise, I try to focus on the latter. But fundamentally it’s very hard to achieve that level of perfection even though I strive for it.

I’m not in the position to judge whether my art is perfect or not. That should be done by someone else: the viewers of my work. I do think about how I would be able to ruin it “perfectly.”

“Newspaper: From June 1, 1974, On” (1974) by Sung Neung Kyung [LEHMANN MAUPIN]

What does the newspaper, as a medium, mean to you? In addition to “Newspaper reading,” you also cut out unrelated newspaper photos to glue them together and doodle on them as part of your performance. What is the meaning behind this?

The newspaper has always been my lifelong subject. My initial plan was for it to be a single piece, “Newspaper: From June 1, 1974, On” (1974), but it became a long-term series, thanks to the significance of the newspaper.

The newspaper has always been at the center of mass media. Now we have social media and television, but newspapers have a long past. At the same time, you never know when the paper will go extinct. Despite that, I continued “Newspaper reading” as the newspaper still matters even if it is considered a dying medium, because in that case then we have to offer a silent tribute to it.

Why does the newspaper appeal to me? Because it has a smell to it; one that only newspapers have. The smartphone doesn’t have a smell. Because of my age and how I’m not part of the video generation, I’ve naturally always been reliant on the newspaper. There’s a certain weight to it as well.

"Venue 22" (1985) by Sung Neung Kyung [LEHMANN MAUPIN]

You seem to be intrigued by rebelling against the system. Is there a reason behind that?

It’s a matter of distinguishing fact from fiction. During the 1970s, every single article was censored, so just because one incident happened it doesn’t mean that the article will depict it truthfully. The fact has been distorted, which is why I wanted to point out the flaws in the newspaper since that time.

The government at the time inspected the articles, and so my work from the ‘70s was my attempt at criticizing the problems with newspapers and how far from the truth they could be. The fact that I cut out the articles was my way of reexamination by removing them from the page.

For me, I had to rebel against the government with the newspaper because it was more direct than images. Images were surveilled less than writing because they weren’t as straightforward. The artists behind the images kept their mouths shut too, because everyone was afraid of going to jail.

I’m ashamed to say that I have defied. I wonder if I could have done better. My rebellion was as feeble as a mosquito sound. I am regretful and embarrassed sometimes.

It may be difficult for viewers to fully understand your art, especially your performances. What is your stance on that matter?

It is irresponsible for an artist to be silent on their artworks. It would be nice if you could exchange thoughts only through image, but that doesn’t work. Why do married couples fight, when they could just finish each other’s sentences instead? We can’t convey our thoughts telepathically so we are unable to understand each other. That’s why we need to speak. Staying silent just proves your irresponsibility. It all starts with a statement, and after the critics and historians write about it, that becomes your shortcut to communication.

Sung Neung Kyung performs "Reading newspaper" at Seoul Gallery in 1976 [LEHMANN MAUPIN]

Where do you get inspiration from?

My least favorite word is inspiration. Artists tend to talk about where they get inspiration from whenever they don’t have much to say. To me, art is about working with the experience from your everyday life. Only that way can you show your existence as an artist. An artist got inspiration from heaven, out of the blue? It doesn’t make sense to me. I am wary of the word “inspiration” because I aim for art that is direct in showing who I am.

Is there anything you would like to advise to younger, emerging artists?

There’s nothing I can say. I could tell them the story of my life. But my experiences will not help them the same way they did to me. The world has progressed to the digital generation, but my life started before that.

Still, there are some principles that I stand by. Firstly, I disregard anything that looks familiar. This also applies to anything that has gone out of style. There are artists that go through art magazines and try to create something from the ideas they got out of there.

Although there were artworks that used the newspaper as a material, there weren’t and still isn’t any that use the information that comes from it. I have always been addicted to information. I wanted to remove the material aspect from my art — hence becoming conceptual art — and approach art from the informational stance. The newspaper is what shaped my identity and particularity as an artist.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]