Actor and artist, Park Shin-yang shows 'The 4th Wall' at first exhibition

Arts & Design

Published: 18 Jan. 2024, 11:15

Actor and artist, Park Shin-yang shows 'The 4th Wall' at first exhibition

Actor Park Shin-yang poses for a photo at the mM Art Center in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, where his first solo exhibition is being held. The actor-turned-painter’s workroom is reproduced on the art center's first floor, from whence he draws. [KIM SANG-SEON]

PYEONGTAEK — Actor Park Shin-yang is somewhat critical of his new nickname "arttainer," a newly coined portmanteau in Korea that refers to celebrities who discover their own affinity for the art sector and begin side gigs as artists.

Park is currently holding his first solo exhibition as an artist at the mM Art Center in Peongtaek, Gyeonggi, under the title "The 4th Wall," but he criticized the term, saying "arttainer" sounds like a celebrity who just does art for fun — with less effort and thinking of it less seriously than single-job artists.

“A higher level of tolerance is given to famous people within the genre of arttainment. That's not the case for me, though,” Park added.

The gallery, where the exhibition is being held, a renovated old steel factory, opened last year. The building retains its old structure with high ceilings and exposed steel frames. The second floor just has a walkway around the perimeter of the building, with the center opened up so that visitors can look down the first floor from any part of the second floor.

On the first floor, Park’s workroom is reproduced to look just like his own in Andong, North Gyeongsang. Exhibitiongoers are encouraged to go around the second floor, the main space, and overlook the Park's workspace on the first floor.

As the title of the exhibition suggests, there is a "fourth wall" between the first and second floors of the exhibition hall. In theater, the fourth wall refers to the invisible and imaginary wall that exists between actors and the audience.

Visitors can see Park's work process as if watching actors perform on stage. Park will stay in his workroom on the first floor until the exhibition ends on April 30, only leaving to eat, take a break, or sleep. When the artist is absent, visitors can go down to the first floor and look around at his drawings currently in the making.

“I brought all the stuff from my atelier in Andong here. People used to visit my workroom in Andong, but I mostly draw at night so it wasn’t easy for me to greet visitors during the daytime. After talking to them for four or five hours, they eventually want to see and check that I’m the one who draws. It was so frustrating. I’ve been trying to deliver my thoughts as a painter by copying my drawing notes and giving them to those who have doubts about my work. One day, I thought to myself, it would be better to publish a book through crowdfunding," Park said.

“I asked Yang Hee-jeong at [publishing company] Minumsa to introduce me to an available editor. She asked me to send the manuscripts first, so I did, and she said the manuscripts are good enough to be published. I first thought she was joking. Because nobody can print their books at Minumsa. That’s how I met philosopher Kim Dong-hoon. They don’t judge people and were willing to listen to me,” he said.

Park and Kim published the book “The 4th Wall” in December as co-authors. Essays by Kim and 131 pieces of Park’s drawings from the past decade are weaved together to make the book.

The cover of Park’s book “The 4th Wall” [MINUMSA]

The art world has never been favorable for celebrities who are also artists. A few artists even publicly criticized some celebrities in 2021, saying they take the easy route in the art market by capitalizing on their fame. But most artists refrain from mentioning celebrity artists at all.

“It is against the spirit of contemporary art to not recognize them as artists," one artist said on the condition of anonymity. "But seeing them easily exhibit their works and get access to the customer base due to their popularity makes us feel uncomfortable. We also have doubts about whether they have accumulated qualities and philosophies [in their works]. But we just keep our mouths shut because we don’t want to discriminate against them.”

But there are some qualities that differentiate Park from other celebrity artists. Although he has been painting for a long time, he hasn’t sold his paintings or held a solo exhibition before. Instead, he’s been pursuing art education. He signed up for a master’s course in Western painting at Andong National University in 2021, and he has distinctive philosophies for his drawings.

The concept of the fourth wall, as explained in Park’s book, is embodied in the exhibition hall.

Kim, as co-author of “The 4th Wall,” explains the fourth wall works as a device that helps both the actor and audience become immerse in the acting. He also says that when the fourth wall is used as a two-way passage between the actor and the audience, diverse feelings can be created. Kim writes that the fourth wall “is the boundary between reality and imagination” but they both exist. Kim added that visitors would think of the first floor, with Park’s workroom, as the realm of imagination, but for Park, it is reality — the actual place where he draws.

Park wrote in his book that he was “curious about what Russian artists were thinking after their country was torn apart in 1991 after the Soviet Union collapsed” after graduating from Dongguk University, which is where he majored in acting.

In Russia, Park studied at M.S Schepkin Higher Theater School and Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute. While studying in Russia, Park happened to see paintings by Russian painter Nicholas Roerich one day, and the experience captivated him and made him curious about art and painting. He continued to focus on acting for a while, and after returning to Korea, the actor appeared in numerous hit drama series and films such as “The Letter” (1997), “The Big Swindle” (2004), “Lovers in Paris” (2004) and the “My Lawyer Mr. Jo” series in 2016 and 2019.

“Donkey 13” (2017) [MM ART CENTER]

He started drawing the face of his Russian friend in his mid-40s in 2013 out of longing for his old friend. Park said he was also mentally and physically exhausted at the time due to health issues.

The following are edited excerpts from the interview.

Q. In the preface of your book, some sentences go, “I’m not the characters I’ve played and created. I want to meet people who treat me as who I am, not as my character.” Is that one of the primary reasons that you draw?

A. That is my second reason. My first goal is to know about myself [through drawing]. You have that question while growing up, and the question disappears as time goes by, but it lingered with me for a long time even in my 40s. In addition, I missed my friend. I think I draw because I yearn for such things.

Will you consider selling your drawings sometime in the future?

I don’t expect them to be hung on the walls of someone else’s living room. People keep telling me my drawings are way too big [to be sold]. They say I should paint the edges of the canvas so that they could be more marketable. But if you look at my drawings, I mostly don’t paint the edges. That means I have no intention of putting them up for sale. When I’m free from selling, I believe I can get to know what I want. If I can’t stick to my way, I can’t keep working on it. But I want to show my drawings to as many people as possible because the purpose of acting and drawing lies in evoking the feelings of people. I even thought about toting my drawings around in a container truck and traveling from this marketplace to that marketplace like a traveling theater troupe.

Park’s oil painting “Kirill 2” (2022) [MM ART CENTER]

You haven’t acted that much over the past four years. Are you willing to stay focused on drawing?

I couldn’t find appealing films or dramas over the past few years. I believe some things should be expressed with the medium of acting while others with drawings. There is a certain limit in drama series or films because you need to make the whole story understandable within the one to two hours of running time. But you don’t have to do that with drawings because they are wider and deeper. I’m so thrilled when people look at my drawings and say it’s hard to explain in words but they feel something going on in their hearts. I’m open to acting and drawing, but I don’t want to force myself to act when I don’t feel like doing it.

BY MOON SO-YOUNG [kjdculture@joongang.co.kr]