Mina Cheon . art . text . teach . review . cv
POLITICAL POP ART
DOKDO
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Top Left: Dokdo by Google Earth This is a video still of fly-through by Google Earth on how to get to Dokdo. One can still get vertigo traveling by Google Earth there. This media piece is a part of a larger body of work on Dokdo, the contested island fought over between Korea and Japan. © Mina Cheon 2010. Top Right: East Island Dock on Google Earth This is also a part of the video still of fly-through by Google Earth. It is the dock where tourists actually land when getting to Dokdo by water. Usually taking two full days of travel, upon low tide, a tourist can land on the dock for all of twenty minutes. This piece is a part of the larger media piece on Dokdo. © Mina Cheon 2010. Bottom Left: On the Way to Dokdo This is a video still of the video documentation that documented the entire ferry ride from the Uleungdo Island to Dokdo Island. This image of the water shows the way going, another video that will be projected and running the opposite side will be of the water coming from Dokdo. Obviously, the destinations on either sides will never show up, the piece is about the wonders and expectations of traveling towards the supposedly magical island. © Mina Cheon 2010. Bottom Right: 20 Minutes of Dokdo This image is also from the documentation of the actual travel to Dokdo, the physical tour there in 2009 by the Mina Cheon. One of the projects that is being proposed is to recreate this landing in a gallery space and allow people to stay in the gallery for only twenty minutes increments to make the simulacra experience as real as possible to the absurdity of the real touristy experience. © Mina Cheon 2010.
About DOKDO, The Project:
DOKDO is a series of new media artworks, which includes a Google-Earth fly-through of getting to the famous and contested island "Dokdo" between Korea and Japan. Other forms of media documentations include the artist's actual travel to this island in 2009, which takes two full days from S. Korea in order to be on the docks for 20 minutes. Territorially fought to this day between the two neighboring Asian countries, Dokdo is also known as Takeshima in Japanese, and feuded between the two nations as their own. This island has been shown in all forms of media and communications in both countries to ignite patriotism and nationalism for each of the countries or to arouse hatred towards the other country. The series of this work is a part of Cheon's recent development of projects known as POLITICAL POP ART, which will be highlighted in her upcoming solo exhibition at The Sungkok Art Museum in 2011, Seoul, Korea. Another version of this project is proposed for a NYC exhibition to create a Dokdo simulation in a gallery space.
ABOUT DOKDO, The Island:
Dokdo is an island that exists between Korea and Japan and is still fought over between the two countries as their own territory. Dokdo means the solitary island in Korean, and in Japanese, it is called Takeshima, meaning the bamboo island.
Ever since Japanese colonization (1910-1945), Koreans believed the island was returned to Korea like the rest of the country, whereas, the Japanese are saying that while the rest of Korea was decolonized, the Island was never returned. Another Korean argument has been that the island was never colonized in the first place, making it a Korean territory.
Many opposing views of the island has made a symbolic contested space between Korea and Japan, but beyond the ideological battle, the issues of fishery and ownership of natural resources is also being fought over. Mostly, the fervor and passion towards Dokdo and Korean nationalism is one that is known all around the world.
The campaign for the rights of Dokdo has been used for nationalist propaganda in Korea for decades, but in 2008, with the ongoing months of Koreans’ summer demonstrations against the American beef import, FTA, and the new Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s conservative ambitions and alliance with the American Bush Administration as well as economic reform, the Korean media hit Dokdo as the main attraction, somehow inspiring anti-American sentiment to becoming anti-Japanese sentiment overnight.
By the end of summer 2008, Dokdo was on every Korean news station and media outlet -- how to get there, who lives there, and the island as virtual tour as well as ferry landing for S. Korean tourists, and even Dokdo in Second Life (appearing virtually with Korean flags on the site).
Korean pop star Kim Jang-hoon commissioned freelancer media person Seo Kyong-duck with a series of advertisement “Do You Know” (that Dokdo is Korean territory) for video, signage, and ads that appeared in the NY Times, the Washington Post, and even Time Square billboards. The media sensation of this island has come to the West, and by this time, the very small set of islets, the Dokdo Island has become an international controversy that has to do with national identity tied to media culture and media sensationalism.
DOKDO in NYC:
Cheon hopes to construct a life-size Dokdo Island landing, which is the dock where the tour boat lands during low tide, for which a limited number of tourists can stay in the landing for twenty minutes at East islet. As a simulacrum of the Dokdo tour experience, the construction would be faux, like poor film props, and reminiscent to the fakeness of natural spaces in Las Vegas theme parks and restaurants. The entrance would stage the landing of the Island and the audience would have to wait their turns to view the installation in twenty minutes intervals. This installation is a significant art piece, one of the most important “Political Pop Art” works by Cheon, due to the scale of the work (as it will be life-size), the satire and humor of the tourist experience, and most importantly, it is a cultural critique on the absurdity of nationalist propaganda deploying media (extended by virtual experience, hence the simulacra) as a way to propel political agenda. By installing this work in during the winter 2011 and spring 2012 in both Seoul and NYC, the old controversy of Dokdo will resurface, this time as an art piece, rather than just popular media advertisement. It will also highlight the international campaign “Do You Know” again at the time of the exhibition.
About CHEON’s POLITICAL POP ART:
Cheon’s primarily interest is looking at national relationships between countries and making artwork that responds to the intersection between politics and popular culture and media. In the past, Cheon has looked at the relationship between South and North Korea, as well as the relationship between Korea and America. Today, she expands her interest to looking at the boundaries between Asian nations, such as in Korea, Japan, and China, also in relation to the US, that questions the philosophical and political construction of East and West, First World and Third World nations.
While questioning how a nation is formed, and how media plays a part in the dynamic of national identity, Cheon draws inspiration from popular culture such as in images found on-line, manga, TV news, and tourist ads that signal political spaces which defines and redefines borders between nations. She does this by locating “images” of “techno-orientalism” in media culture.
Cheon’s Political Pop Art includes largely two national relationships:
1. North and South Korea (and America)
2. Korea, Japan, and China (and America / and Russia)
Part 1: includes older works that deals with politics and pop culture; specifically in relation to North and South Korea.
Half Moon Eyes: Interactive Media Installation with Touchscreen technology that documents visit to North Korea (crossing the border)
Addressing Dolls: Life size paper doll dress of the 70’s South Korea vs a wall installation of 99 North Korean dolls (hand made)
Part 2: includes all new works that deals with politics, pop culture, and media; specifically in relation to Korea, Japan, and China (and America).
- To and From: Visting Dokdo (video projection)
- Simi-Dokdo: Second Life (gigantic print size of actual Dokdo or recreation on specific land)
- What is in an Island? Economic manmade to symbolic development (comparison of 2 islands)
- Kenkanryu (large painting series, black and white pearl, crushed diamonds?)
- Introduction to China (large painting series, black and white pearl, crushed diamonds?)
- Candy Candy and Ichimi: The story of espionage lesbian lovers (Animation)
- Japan during Beijing Olympics: (Video Single Channel)
- Webkinz: Virtual Pets on-line: Japan’s character influence in America (Video Single Channel)
- DIY OBAMA, Dancing Baby O-mama: animation projection installation and cast sculpture
- Is Korean a Race, 2010 US Census: interactive media installation