For festivals, openings and ceremonies
The opening, written by hand.
A large canvas, a large brush, and the name of the festival written in front of the audience at the moment it begins. The painting is finished on stage, in ten to twenty minutes, and the festival opens with it.
This is not a demonstration or a side attraction. It is the same work I have been making for years, done at the moment a place declares itself — which is exactly what the work is about.
Peak — painted at the summit of Gwongeumseong, Seoraksan, in front of the climbers who were there
What the organiser is left with
The painting
One finished work on canvas, titled for the festival or the place. It stays with the organiser — to hang in the hall, to show next year, to use in print.
The film
The whole thing filmed from the first mark to the signature, edited short. Ready for the festival's own channels.
The photographs
A moment that photographs well — which is what a press release needs and a ribbon-cutting rarely gives.
Why it will work on the day
Between September 2023 and 2024 I made one hundred and thirty-three paintings on location across the country — on a volcanic peak, at a dam, at a harbour, in front of a city hall, on a street in Seoul.
Every one was painted in a single sitting, outdoors, in front of whoever was there, and every one was filmed from the first mark to the signature. Wind, cold, rain, a crowd, a schedule — none of it is new.
Painting in front of an audience is not something that began with that project either: the first live performance was in 2016, in a gallery beside Gyeongbokgung Palace, with the audience painting alongside.
What it needs on site
- SpaceAbout 3 × 3 m on the stage or in front of it.
- CanvasPrepared by the organiser, at whatever size suits the stage and the wall it will hang on afterwards — the work stays with you. Primed cotton canvas on a wooden stretcher, and a stand or easel that holds it steady. I bring the brushes and the paint.
- TimeTen to twenty minutes of the programme. About an hour to set up beforehand, half an hour to clear.
- SoundThe festival's own PA. Music during the painting helps; the piece can be chosen with the organiser.
- RainAn indoor or covered alternative agreed in advance. The work has been made in bad weather before.
- FilmingI bring my own camera. If the festival has a crew, they are welcome to the footage.
Other forms it can take
Closing as well as opening
A second painting at the end of the festival, titled for what actually happened over the days between.
A wall the visitors finish
I lay down the structure; visitors add one stroke each over the course of the day. The work belongs to the festival and to the people who came.
A series for the region
Several paintings across the days, one for each place or theme the festival is built around — the form 133 Places already takes.
About the artist
I have been painting with Hangul since I was sixteen, when my family emigrated from Seoul to New Jersey in 1989.
The work is black, white, silver and gold. Hangul, Chinese characters and the Roman alphabet run together in a single line until the three cannot be told apart — which is why a single word, written large, carries so much of it.
- 1990·91Selected to represent the State of New Jersey two years running, and exhibited at the Morris Museum in Morristown — while still in high school.
- 1992Exhibition, New York.
- 1990sBuilt the Haenah-Kent Gallery at 568 Broadway, SoHo, New York, together with his mother, the painter Kang-Ja Lee, who studied sculpture at Seoul National University and ran the gallery until 2002.
- —Nam June Paik was one of the artists who came through his mother's gallery. They met when he was in his teens.
- 2023–24Returned to painting full time and made 133 paintings on location across the country, each one filmed.
Enquiries
Scale, number of works and canvas size are agreed with the organiser, and the fee follows from those. Tell me the date, the place, and roughly how the opening runs, and I will send a written proposal.
Invoicing and contracting are handled in the ordinary way; documents required for a public body can be provided.