Orientity is a coined word for this art group. It was created from the word “Orient” and “Identity”, because it is the theme. This group introduces works of artists who have Korean ancestors and are active artists around the world.
- Kyoto Art Center (2004)
- Fringe Club (Hong Kong 2005)
- Maison Internationale (Grenoble, 2006)
- La Centrale (Montréal, 2007)
- Maison Folies (Lille, 2008)
Members
Adel-Kim GOUILLON – Video & Installation & Performing Artist, France (Seoul, S/Korea, 1977)
Adel Gouillon is a multimedia artist based in Lille, France. She graduated in Fine Art from Rennes Beaux Arts. In 1999, she began exhibiting her installations and videos in groups and since 2001 has held solo exhibitions of her “huge” installations. She received a grant to study in Montreal and screened some videos in Seoul and Kyoto. “I work on three themes: childhood, woman, and death. The childhood for its creative imaginary; a woman for her mutability, and death for its representation of accomplishment. The viewer enters the rooms as if on a stage where s/he becomes his/her own actor. Direction also exists in her videos, either as narrative or experimentation.”
Raymond HAHN – Photographer, USA/Korea (Los Angeles, USA, 1967)
A 2nd generation Korean-American photographer who lives in Los Angeles, California and Seoul, Korea. Hahn has had solo and group shows in the U.S. and Korea. (Extravanga Kimchi, Amerissage, Passe Simple, Made in Korea, Ssamzie space). “My work involves examining some of the relationships that exist between geography and culture in an Asian American frame of context. I attempt to analyze the extent of identification a person may have with their ethnic background and the circumstances that promote or preclude this.”
Jane Jin KAISEN (Boo Hae Jin) – Painter/ Filmmaker / Writer, Denmark (S/Korea, 1980)
Boo Hae Jin was adopted to Denmark at three months old. From 1996, she participated in an artist community, and had solo exhibitions in public spaces. In 1997-98, she went to the U.S. as an exchange student. From 2000, she has been pursuing art studies. In 2001, Kaisen went to South Asia and Korea where she found her birth family, in Jeju-do. In 2002, she entered the Royal Danish Academy of Art in Copenhagen. “My art may work on an independent platform whence it can communicate, and so has the ability and responsibility to challenge, relate to, and analyze our contemporary lives and life circumstances on all levels. I try to see how social behavior – and structures, language, technology, culture, and globalization has influence on a group or on the individual, and how thought patterns work. The other goal is to understand the term of art on a deeper aesthetic level. I am curious to understand in depth the techniques, material, and genres in different media; to transcend the ordinary into the sublime, viewing the artwork phenomenological, but subdued to our collective subconscious translation of symbols, metaphysics, and mythology.”
Mihee-Nathalie LEMOINE – Multimedia artist, Belgium/Korea (Busan, 1968)
Working in film, video, painting, and poetry. Published internationally. Received grants from the Brussels Multimedia Center and the University of Wisconsin. Awarded at the Brussels Short Film Festival, Seoul Documentary Film Festival. She has exhibited solo and group shows in Korea, Taiwan, Hong-Kong, Germany, United States and Canada. “I am interested in communication with foreign sounds, meanings, and pronunciation. Through culture, the connection with the visual/graphic and interpretation will be understood, misunderstood, or questioned.”
OH Haji / OKAMURA – Fabric designer, Japan (Osaka, 1976)
Oh studied and received her B.A. from Kyoto City University from the Crafts Division, Dyeing and weaving department, in 2000. In 2002, she got her M.A. Crafts Division, Dyeing and weaving department from the same University. The same year, she pursued her studies in Korea and in 2003 followed hanbok-making classes at the National Folk Museum, Seoul. Since 1998 she has participated mostly in Kyoto and Korea in group exhibitions (Gallery 16, Sawaka Gallery-Kyoto, Seoul International Flag Festival, Gangwon-do Coal Mine Village Art Museum, etc.) “My theme is about the social situation and history of Korean-Japanese. My pieces tell my individual story, but they also represent the essence of the Korean-Japanese identity and situation. I believe the meaning of Hanbok to Korean-Japanese is not about patriotism for consciousness of ethnicity. We need to establish our own identities in Japan. My art/costume is not ‘Fashion’. Folk costume expresses a lifestyle and thoughts about ethnicity. It begins from yarn, and with the accumulation of time, act and wisdom of humans, it is completed. It is not about fashion. It is a philosophy that is immeasurable. My art makes it possible to continue to show people’s time from their roots.”
Jemma HAN Multimedia artist, S/Korea(Seoul, 1970)
Han spent her childhood in Hong Kong and returned to Korea when she was six. She studied Art at Seoul National University. She had her first solo exhibition in 1995 at Yoon Gallery including overseas (Tokyo, Osaka and LA). Han has exhibited internationally in art fairs (Japan & China), and group exhibits (Japan & Chile). “My work is about relationship and communication with ordinary objects such as needles, electric cords and outlets, nails, zippers, snap buttons and/or hinges, etc… Motifs are symbolical, composing and connecting with others. For example, the religious meaning of a nail indicates sacrifice and resurrection. With her performance, she invites the public or/and herself to interact with her work.
Naomi K. LONG – Writer, USA/HI(Seoul, Korea, 1974)
Naomi Long is a freelance writer and photographer living in Hawaii. She was born in Korea and moved to the U.S. at age four. Her photographs have been exhibited at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and the Gallery-On-the-Pali, and will be published in Century of the Tiger: One hundred Years of Korean Culture in America. (2002) Naomi K. Long was born in Seoul, Korea in 1974 and moved to the United States when she was four. Her photographs and poetry were published in an anthology, Century of the Tiger: One Hundred Years of Korean Culture in America, as well as in various journals including Arts and Letters, XCP, and Tinfish. A chapbook of poems, Radiant Field, is forthcoming from Tinfish Press. She currently lives in Iowa City, Iowa where she is attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. (2004). “I believe that art is an attempt to communicate the ineffable, to dialog with the depths, to trespass into the mystery (and memory) that underlies human – and other – existences. Among the thematic concerns in my work is that of wandering. Forced to negotiate with new physical, cultural, and intellectual boundaries in an increasingly globalized community, the wanderer is caught between “somewhere” and “nowhere.” Having left Korea when I was a child, I now retrace a journey that encompasses geographical, political, and personal narratives in hopes to gain a fuller understanding of this human slippage across space and time.
star~kim project (kimura byol lemoine) 