10 Questions with Hwang Sung Mi

Hwang Sung Mi is a Korean visual artist. She received a B.F.A in Printmaking from the Hong-Ik University, in Seoul, South Korea. In her career, she has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in South Korea, Italy, and Greece, starting in 2008. Her work has been published internationally, in the press, and in artists' books.

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ARTIST STATEMENT

“My works start from conflicting concepts such as life and death, black and white, visible and invisible, inside and outside; I am interested in dichotomous ideas. These are ultimately not contrary concepts at antipodes but cycles, which are dialectical structures. The contradictions on the boundary of these binary concepts go through thesis-antithesis-synthesis and lead to unity.

That is, these pairs of notions form circular structures, realizing that there are many innumerable concepts, and the passage of physical time flows through the gap between them. “Life is death, death is life.“ Flowers live within a moment that is blooming and withering, that is, Vanitas (futility). A flower’s lifetime is similar to the life of a disposable plastic bag. Thin and translucent plastic life, being used and discarded, rotting in about 100 years. It is a time of fast life and states a lapse of time. Plastic stands as an opposing concept to genuineness, representing the fake and the artificial. “There is no absolute good or absolute evil, and they are relative.“

Plastic and lace, which are not just transparent but also opaque, are materials displaying the contradiction and the coexistence of two worlds, such as life and death, black and white, truth and false, visible and invisible. These materials reflect all of the tangible and reverse sides. “Countless colours exist between achromatic colours, which are black and white.“ There are various colours having a chroma. These various types of colours stand for diversity and also represent different species of creatures.”

— Hwang Sung Mi

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. Who are you, and how did you start experimenting with art?

I am an artist based in Korea. I had dreamed of and liked to draw since when I was young. I graduated from university and became a full-time artist, and I grappled with my style and sensation to contain me into a frame. Meanwhile, I worked with a diversities of materials and media, and finally ferreted out plastic bags. In that way, I am realizing and materializing all the words and stories I would like to encode with miscellaneous media, materials, and print. Nowadays, I am concerned not only with my work but also with hand-made clothes, art, and have envisaged various works, sources, and materials.

How would you define yourself as an artist?

I am happy when I can do my art and feel like myself. I need my time to infatuate myself with my work 100 percent. By the way, the circumstances that I am surrounded by nowadays, and my conditions are not good, and I have become diffuse, in fact. I have endeavored to be an artist who does not stagnate on the same styles and embodies new approaches, finding new ways and new ideas to incorporate in my work of art. Also, I have had my hands full of leftover materials; for example, magazines and books are my main materials these days, and I have many difficulties and chasms to be active in Korea, so I bend my eyes to overseas countries to apply.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your artistic routine when working?

The process starts with miscellaneous ideas and concepts, considering materials and media. Nowadays, I get interested in fabric, and it is bliss that the outcomes and outputs satisfy me. I am trying to bequeath my works, for instance, with articles, applications, etc. In the Flower series, since 2017, I have worked with plastic bags, and I came up with some concepts that I can streamline and maintain. As a result, I finally obtained outcomes that I can display and that feel more natural and more like me. These days, I have processed many projects and applied for competitions. I have my rules and routines, but sometimes, because of stalking and harassment, I become livid and can not fill the plan and the hours.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

I am inspired by everything that I observe. I am interested in feeling free from predicaments and depurating my mind and sentiments in nature. Then, I intensify inspiration from the unconscious. Additionally, I do not want that people gain inspiration and appropriation from me, even my demeanor and linguistic styles.

What do you see as the strengths of your art, visually or conceptually?

I have been concerned with dichotomized concepts and competing claims, e.g., truth and false, life and death. Deriving from that, I have worked and illustrated everything in all of my works naturally. I think people can feel the same, and I can be content with that. My motto is to feel a bond of sympathy and earn persuasion visually from universal people and generations. Also, I wish to utilize my forte to incarnate and identify my feelings so that nobody can camouflage and counterfeit them. 

How do you differentiate yours from the rest? In other words, what do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

My flowers contain and talk about me and my life. That is, many stories between life and death. I can only state and express the repetitive circulation of wither and bloom, axioms. Because of their excessive avarice, many people personate copyrights and my styles. I have been fettered by tort f.i. copyrights, emulation, and stalking and tried to overcome them. In accelerated and advanced periods, it is the result of people and artists who should have demeanor do not have any aesthetics. I still have wrestled with my rights and toxicosis, and so on. Nobody can have my own inherent rights and substitute for them, at least about me. Never. For me, in this circumstance, I would like to show undaunted manners. 

What's one essential element in your art?

I consider my concepts beforehand and embody them and the images which have not been seen. I prefer my own colors and diverse high chromas. The reason is that my tastes can mirror my work of art. Also, I need universal and my own philosophy to persuade and have sympathy together. In this way, now I am doing my own style of work of art and form as I want. It is my persuasive to recount based on my experiences. 

What do you think about the art community and market?

In Korea, all of the art industries are keen and sharp, and objectivity is lacking. Unit of family, art area, and environment have been established, out of them, a death-dealing industry which is what they desire. It is too cliquish and exclusive and not understandable. It seems they have machinations and conspiracies about my works, which are my own possessions, planned and nationalized. I want to question all in this world and epoch if they are really worth enjoying arts and have a conscience, connoisseurs. I say that my possession can win your obsession; I have my own injunction and want to ban my works from being exhibited in the world by law. This society festers; please do not make any doctoral issues. I could try to prosecute the culprits. Forever.

Are you working on any new series or concepts at the moment?

Yes. I need some money and expenses to do all of the ideas, and I have a lot of projects on my plate. I have met inaccessible and unapproachable hardships, so everything has been hard. I am doing my works with various types of media and methods with the flower concept, and it is now in process.

Finally, any projects or exhibitions you are looking forward to this year?

I have my project and products, which I am doing now. In all aspects, I support and patronize myself to trace my work of art in magazines. Also, I always think about and linger on my art and exhibitions, which can be appreciated.