Installation view of Bek Hyunjin’s Exhibiton, 《2017 Korea Artist Prize》 © MMCA

I first knew Bek Hyunjin as a musician, when I became a fan of his band, Uhuhboo Project. It wasn’t until 2004 that I saw one of his paintings, and then in 2008, I attended his solo exhibition. Bek used to introduce himself as a young man creating literature, music, and visual art, but he now considers an “omnidirectional artist.” I also used to think that he was working in various fields and genres, but I have recently begun to see all of his different activities as one.

Admittedly, I do not know the precise definition of “omnidirectional art.” But I can say with certainty that, although Bek’s different activities might belong to different fields, they are not unrelated, and he is not just playing around independently. After all, all of his work seems to result from an outpouring of the fundamental human desire to synthesize playfulness and “creation.”

In 2016, Bek held a solo exhibition entitled 《Field, Bird, Dog and Talent》, which featured twenty-five new paintings and drawings, as well as a sound performance called Face to Wall. Every day during the month-long duration of the exhibition, he came to the exhibition gallery and gave an impromptu performance while facing the wall. This exhibition exemplified the unique sensation that only Bek Hyunjin can provide, as an artist who sings as well as paints. Interestingly, even if the visitors missed Bek’s daily performance, they probably felt like they were attending a performance as soon as they entered the gallery.

This is because one of the consistent elements of Bek Hyunjin’s art is physicality, or more simply, the body. Of course, his musical and acting performances are naturally based on the “body,” but his paintings also evince the body, by drawing our attention to the movements of the brush over the canvas. Moreover, the way that he belts out sound from deep in his body is more akin to wailing or howling, rather than singing.

Describing Bek’s works, art critic Lee Sunyoung referenced Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari: “[Bek’s works] demonstrate the changeability and fluidity of the un-hierarchized body. According to ‘A Thousand Plateaus’, the body is no more than an aggregation of valves, sluices, bowls or communicating tubes….The explosion of the hierarchized organism is not the dead body, but the even more alive body filled with polymerism, namely, ‘body with no organs.’”

On the other hand, one aspect of Bek’s art that seems to be at odds with physicality are the unusual titles of his works: ‘Modern Talk Coming from an Asian who Has Experienced Strange Stones and Trees After Neurology and Particle Physics; Vectors or Pixels or Whatsoever; A Young Man with a Face Reminiscent of Someone from the Movies, by Nature Positive, but like an Old Man Living Alone, Very Poor and Forlorn’. These highly literary expressions reflect the unorganized landscape of a desultory mind.

Notably, a drawing that appears on the first page of his art book ‘Organism, Mechanism, Blurism’ shows three words—“text,” “painting,” and “music”—intertwined within a triangle. These eclectic stories and ramblings, which are continuously generated and entangled within his mind, form the foundation of Bek’s art. The resulting works, which are unorganized yet loosely parallel, present the squirming potential and possibility for a new type of art.

Thus, I am recommending Bek Hyunjin for the Korea Artist Prize, based on my belief that the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul must also propose the new art of the near future. I am very curious to see what unpredictable outcome Bek could generate within the competitive context of this award.

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