Sisterhat’s Exhibition Ordinary Violence
By Kyoungmi Oh
Published: April. 20, 2016
Translated by Jieun Lee
In the history of contemporary Korean art, very
few exhibits by Korean feminist artists have been shown since the 2000 exhibit A-bang-gung:
Jongmyo Occupation Project by the feminist artist group Ipgim. It is
difficult for artists to continue to produce their works in Korea, if they are
not already famous, or if they do not have support from Arts Council Korea, a
regional government, or a private foundation. In this sense, it is reasonable
to say that producing artwork is truly a matter of survival for artists
pursuing activist art that encompasses social commentary; feminist art is no
exception.
In the early 2000’s, feminist artists were not
very visible in the realm of Korean fine art due to the depressed atmosphere of
the feminist movement. However —fortunately or unfortunately —due to a chain of
events such as a young Korean man with the surname Kim joining ISIS because he
hated feminism and the appearance of the feminist online community ‘Megalia,’
hate crimes and hate speech against women became a hot issue and conditions
began to change gradually. Feminist groups started to form in art schools, and news
of feminist artists’ activity began to be heard every now and again. It was in
this state of affairs that I visited an exhibition by the feminist visual art
community Sisterhat.
Feminist
Art as Activism
Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Monet’s Water
Lillies—that is what the general public, who did not major in art, thinks
of when someone mentions “fine art”: a masterpiece hung on the wall of a museum
or, at least, a completed expression of an artistic intention rendered in a
specific medium, something to please the viewer’s visual and aesthetic
sensibilities. However, contemporary art no longer aims to achieve these
imperatives; no longer is the goal a masterpiece hung on the wall.
Many contemporary fine artists seek to actively
engage with society by exposing social problems and making them into an issue.
For them, art is not only an end, but also a means—a tool—for activism. The
works produced with this intention or through it do not stimulate people’s
sensibility by so-called aesthetic beauty; rather, they create a discomfort
which is not easy to face. Feminist art is—without a doubt—at the forefront of
contemporary art’s effort to make us uncomfortable rather than aesthetically
pleased.
 |
| Yim Ee-hye's Untitled. Pen on paper, 14.85×10.5 cm, 2016 © Sisterhat’s exhibition Ordinary Violence |
This aspect can be found in the works of
Sisterhat, who started their work identifying themselves as a feminist visual
art community. Sisterhat’s activism reflects women’s issues, such as inequality,
and draws attention to them–thus increasing public awareness and urging action
to remedy injustice. To start a discussion on the human rights of sex workers
in Miari [a red-light district in Seoul] in 2015, Sisterhat chose ‘sexual
violence’ as the theme for their exhibition Ordinary
Violence which opened at the Seongbuk Seoul Art Space on April 14, 2016.
Hello,
Sisterhat!
The most direct and violent damage which men can
inflict upon women is sexual violence. Sexual violence not only leaves physical
damage but also deep psychological scars on the victim; moreover, it stigmatizes the victims in a
social atmosphere in which women’s virginity is considered to be of the utmost
importance, thus inflicting irreparable psychological pain and leading them to
hide or minimize the fact of the damage. Further harm is also found within laws
and policies in which the victims need to prove sexual violence, even as the
investigators are ignorant that this causes second and third-hand sexual
violence—a tendency that has constantly been criticized as a serious problem.
In this exhibition, Sisterhat tried to change
“the direction of the existing discourse on sexual violence” by projecting the
image of a predator, not the victim. Along with this image was the idea to represent
the fact that most cases of sexual violence occur between acquaintances
(seventy to eighty percent of all sexual crimes are committed by an
acquaintance) and that we are never sure if sexually violent predators exist
near us; it even suggests the possibility that potential predators are among
the people we know well.
Sisterhat stated that they created their works
by directly communicating with survivors of sexual violence and engaging in
discussions with a counseling center for sexual violence. The exhibition space
is filled with reconstructed images of predators based on sexual violence
survivors’ documentation which, by itself, occupies one entire wall in the
exhibition space.
 |
| Lee Jeong-eun's Untitled. Gouache on canvas board, 30×30 cm, 2016 © Sisterhat’s exhibition Ordinary Violence |
There are works by five artists. Im Ee-hye’s Untitled series is unforgettable. It shows undistinguishable
shapes resembling a human face, a human figure, or parts of a human body,
intermingled and fragmented. Black marks are roughly speckled about, creating
the feeling of instability filled with terrible and painful memories of horror,
attempting but unable to forget as the dark spots erupt. Lee Jeong-eun’s Untitled series suggests the many
stories of a crime scene and victim, of gazes following and torturing the
victim, and of social stigma; they do not let the spectator contemplate the
work with a light heart.
Sexual violence by acquaintances occurs because
of the gender hierarchy that exists in the victim’s relationship with the
perpetrator. In general, men hold the power in this hierarchical relationship,
not women. There are many cases of sexual violence generated in this kind of
relationship being hidden for long periods of time. The perpetrators control
the victims’ psyche by providing reasons like the importance of the
relationship, or instilling the fear of society’s views should the relationship
be disclosed, thus leading the forced or voluntary concealment of the sexual
violence.
In Juna Lee’s work there is a parasitic plant, which
embodies the figure of a perpetrator, encroaching on its victim’s mind, thus
controlling the relationship and the situation. The work by Kwon Soon-young
visualizes the violence that may be hidden within. Using the metaphor of a tentacled
beast, representing a perpetrator who commits violence at the very moment that
a victim is defenseless, Maekjoo’s work reveals the vulnerability of women
exposed to unfathomable terrors and the accompanying sense of dread.
The indefinite terror which the artists express through
a victim’s memory is an emotion that most women must have felt. We are familiar
with this ill-defined sense of dread; on the other hand, this emotion is not
familiar to men. Their discomfort arises out of the fact that “men” are defined
as the category of perpetrator. Even though sexual violence is basically
considered not as an individual’s issue, but as a society’s systematic problem,
couldn’t the structural problem be solved by the transformation of individuals?
So, please feel, understand, and sympathize after seeing Sisterhat’s works—even
if they make you feel uncomfortable.
The
Politics of Feminist Art Urge an “Unfamiliar Perspective”
 |
| Juna Lee's Lathrea Clandestina (Purple Toothwort). Pencil on paper, 29.7×21 cm, 2016 © Sisterhat’s exhibition Ordinary Violence |
Feminist art can be uncomfortable to people who
live far from feminism, which advocates women’s rights, equality between women
and men. Feminist art points out problems in a wide range of areas, from social
policies to culture to private everyday life issues, encompassing such concerns
as the glass ceiling, invisible entry barriers, public space issues which women
confront, the wage gap, one-sidedly distributed domestic work, sexual virginity
forced upon women only, standardized criteria for beauty required for women
only, and so forth.
Feminist art is an artistic genre which proposes
to the public visual expressions of the problems that women and society’s
minorities confront. Feminist art asks for the reformation of legal and social
policies that are irrational toward women, criticizes patriarchy and its
implicit and inherent masculinity; it also negates the standardized beauty
norm, advocates for a “spontaneous” beauty, and proposes an alternative way of
caring for one’s appearance.
Feminist art suggests an unfamiliar view to us.
Feminist artworks show us something we haven’t felt before, seen before, spoken
before, or acted upon before, allowing us to directly feel and experience what
we couldn’t before. This is the aesthetics and politics of feminist art. I hope
that feminist art, which we haven’t seen much of for a while, will be resurgent
in our troubling times of misogyny. So happy to meet you, Sisterhat.
Exhibition Ordinary
Violence
-April 11-28, 2016 (10am to 6pm)
-Seoul Art Space Seongbuk, 2nd Floor
Gallery
*Original article: http://ildaro.com/sub_read.html?uid=7442
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