People in the Arts 19
▲ Artist Yang Na-hee
▲ Artist Noh Yeo-woon
FEATURE
Two Peas in Their Pods Yang Na-hee and Noh Yeo-woon By Kang Jennis Hyun-suk
Some artists attempt to express their inner selves on canvas, others undertake to foretell the future, still others paint the present, and then there are those who take it as their mission to preserve the past. This month Kang Jennis Hyunsuk introduces two young-ish artists who bring back vivid memories of their childhood through the dwellings of the era – an era where the single-story, tile-roofed house had given way to the two-story, concrete icheung-jip (이층집) that populated the alleyways of our fair city, and when the present-day, ubiquitous apartment complex was still nowhere to be found in Gwangju. These two artists both take as subject matter the dwellings of the alleyways and byways of the past, but as Kang discovers, they are not two peas in the same pod – no two artists are – but these two artists’ pods spring from the same pea plant. — Ed.
2021�07��.indd 19
July 2021
A major commonality of these two artists is that they constantly strive to find the essence of life through the observation of human beings and surrounding phenomena. Yang Na-hee's and Noh Yeo-woon's works seemed similar to me at first, but as I learned more about each artist, I discovered that each has their own unique style of painting.
ARTIST YANG NA-HEE Yang Na-hee’s work is three-dimensional. She cuts up cardboard boxes to make houses and villages, and on top of this, she colors them with oil paints. In Korea, neighborhoods of houses on urban hilltops are called “moonrise villages” (dal-dongne, 달동네), which means that the moon rises from behind the houses on the hilltop. The small houses are attached side by side in a maze of alleys. The moonrise villages on hills were usually those of people who moved to the city from the countryside when the nation was in the process of changing from an agricultural economy to an industrial one. Most of the residents were financially disadvantaged. Now, many of
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
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his article features two young artists who depict the old houses, alleys, and neighborhoods of Gwangju. They capture that which is being left out and forgotten in this fast-paced world. These two Gwangju artists are Yang Na-hee and Noh Yeo-woon.
2021-06-24 �� 10:19:33
