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Lot Essay
In his straightforward rendering of portraiture but with an inventive technique, Kim Dong Yoo probes economic sociology by connecting past and present cultural references in an overall aesthetic fused with high and low art characteristics, perhaps as his nod to Walter Benjamin's idea that "during long periods of history, the mode of human sense perception changes with humanity's entire mode of existence. The manner in which human sense perception is organized, the medium in which is accomplished, is determined not only by nature but by historical circumstances as well." Inspired by semiotic theory, Kim Dong Yoo appropriates widely recognized images of celebrities and historical figures in his paintings, coyly manipulating them through a tightly formulated method to challenge viewer's stereotyped perceptions of these personae.
Mao is fabricated with pressured grid of Monroe, while Elizabeth Taylor is manifested by obsessive pixels of Clark Gable. Kim carefully controls the monotonic patches to conjure a nostalgic memoir of Mao and Elizabeth. His charismatic tranquility, however is disturbed with closer inspection, by the mass produced mini-Monroe and Gable, to subtly criticize the media on the manipulation and speculation on the two figures. Mao Zedong's portrait created from the pixelated images neutrally presents Mao as a leader of his country while Elizabeth Taylor's beauty and celebrity is presented through the images of her husband Clark Gable. Kim's ideology of this correlation between Monroe and Mao; Taylor and Gable is to assert the mythical paradigm promoted by mass media, dictating how celebrities are produced, how their images are consumed, flagrantly packaging them into sellable products, and strategically endowing them with characteristics capable of evoking public attention and idolization. Through the reproduced images of these idols, the outer appearance and inner characteristics of the celebrity is contrasted and compared and thus represents Korean contemporary artist's emphasis on cultural and self identity.
Mao is fabricated with pressured grid of Monroe, while Elizabeth Taylor is manifested by obsessive pixels of Clark Gable. Kim carefully controls the monotonic patches to conjure a nostalgic memoir of Mao and Elizabeth. His charismatic tranquility, however is disturbed with closer inspection, by the mass produced mini-Monroe and Gable, to subtly criticize the media on the manipulation and speculation on the two figures. Mao Zedong's portrait created from the pixelated images neutrally presents Mao as a leader of his country while Elizabeth Taylor's beauty and celebrity is presented through the images of her husband Clark Gable. Kim's ideology of this correlation between Monroe and Mao; Taylor and Gable is to assert the mythical paradigm promoted by mass media, dictating how celebrities are produced, how their images are consumed, flagrantly packaging them into sellable products, and strategically endowing them with characteristics capable of evoking public attention and idolization. Through the reproduced images of these idols, the outer appearance and inner characteristics of the celebrity is contrasted and compared and thus represents Korean contemporary artist's emphasis on cultural and self identity.