At 10:00 on November 23, 2016, “Flowers, Encompassing Time – the Exhibition of Female Artists from Beijing and Seoul” opened at the Seoul Museum of History, more than 200 people from the cultural circles in Seoul attended the opening ceremony. Representative Director of Seoul Cultural Financial Group Joo Cheol-hwan reviewed the achievements of the cultural and artistic exchanges between Beijing and Seoul since 2013, and looked forward to having more in-depth exchanges and cooperation in the future, to make the greatest contribution to the friendly exchanges between the two countries. Curators Yue Jieqiong and Hong Kyung-ah respectively introduced the preparation of exhibition and artists and recalled the Chinese and South Korean artists that had made an inspection and exchange to Beijing in July. Shi Ruilin, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Korea and Director of Chinese Culture Center in Seoul attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition.
The exhibition is co-organized by the Beijing Municipal People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Seoul Cultural Financial Group, with academic support from CAFA, co-organized by Beijing Song Ya Feng Culture Media Co., Ltd., and 12 artists from Beijing and Seoul who created art around the theme of “flower”, borrowing many artistic languages from the traditional painting to the multimedia technology in order to express the thoughts and memories of flowers. The artists from Beijing include Chen Xi, Xie Qing, Zhu Lan, Ma Jiawei, Zhang Fan and Tan Qi, and the artists from Seoul include Kim Taeyoun, Shin Ji-sun, Sin Hye Jung, Oh Hwajin, Lee Sujin, Choi Chanjoo. In this summer, the artists of the two cities found a mutual resonance in the discussion in Beijing. At the end of the two seasons, the works with the implication of flowers and time finally debuted in Seoul.
In this exhibition, “flower” is a symbol of life, and any life in the world sprouts and blooms from the “unfinished” cowered state, repeatedly searching for the truth and sincerity of life. Early winter allows people to see the place where flowers once bloomed, the earth seems very quiet, but the underground stems and roots of plants are constantly busy, ready to meet the new life. They may create a sound that is different from the world of flowers blooming.
It is not only a strong desire for life change, it is also the theme of this exhibition – “Implication of Time” the artists of the two cities gathered together to search for spatio-temporal escapism, to subvert or disassemble the past, present and future linear time, thus to showcase a new perspective.
“Life is the endless pursuit of the generation and communication.” The artists of the two cities have a regional and psychological distance in this proposition, and the use of a new perspective structure and way to melt this interval into “flowers” that present many new concepts.
Curator Yue Jieqiong notes that the exhibited works cover various artistic expressions, such as oil painting, Chinese painting, Chinese calligraphy, and mixed materials, around the theme of female artists’ favorite theme of “flower”, the use of meticulous color to showcase the flirtatious quality of flowers, or making exquisite jewellry, or through the calligraphy to display the flexible and beauty. “Flower” is a traditional image of literature, and the literati rely on the personal experience and aesthetic feeling, as well as the cultural tradition, often using the attribute and quality of “flower” to describe a man’s posture and virtue. “Flower” is especially used to refer to a woman... Since it arrived in modern times, along with the development of women’s art, flowers showcase a variety of colors in the brushes of artists. To interpret the image of flowers from a female perspective, boldly exploring and exposing flowers is one of the important expressions for the feminist art to publicize the female personality, to pursue the self-identity.
Courtesy of the artists and the Seoul Museum of History, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
