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<TITLE>Re: [KS] Transgression & secular values in Korea?</TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'>Phillipe Hausmann’s image of Marilyn Monroe “disguised” as Mao is curr ntly hanging at the Getty Center in Los Angeles and may be screened here: <a href="http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/portraits_renown/index.html">http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/portraits_renown/index.html</a><BR>
</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="2"><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>-- <BR>
Lauren W. Deutsch<BR>
835 S. Lucerne Blvd., #103<BR>
Los Angeles CA 90005<BR>
Tel 323 930-2587 Cell 323 775-7454<BR>
E lwdeutsch@earthlink.net<BR>
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<HR ALIGN=CENTER SIZE="3" WIDTH="95%"><B>From: </B>Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann@koreaweb.ws><BR>
<B>Reply-To: </B>Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws><BR>
<B>Date: </B>Sat, 21 Apr 2012 03:12:37 -0700<BR>
<B>To: </B>Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws><BR>
<B>Subject: </B>[KS] Transgression & secular values in Korea?<BR>
<BR>
Dear Professors Juhn Ahn and Nojin Kwak:<BR>
<BR>
Since this is not directly about the conference <BR>
itself (your 'call for papers' quoted below) I <BR>
changed the subject line.<BR>
<BR>
I am fascinated (but also partially confused) by <BR>
the terms you use. All this is also very <BR>
important for contemporary art. So I wonder if <BR>
you, or others on the list, could possibly <BR>
explain and discuss more about these terms and <BR>
how you define them?<BR>
<BR>
Let me start with this to explain why this is so <BR>
fascinating, but also why some of your <BR>
terminology is (until now) confusing: Wu Hung, <BR>
now at U of Chicago and one of the important <BR>
scholars in the area of theorizing contemporary <BR>
East Asian art, writes the following under the <BR>
sub-header "Subverting Painting":<BR>
----<BR>
A chief strategy employed by many Chinese artists <BR>
to make their works explicitly "contemporary" is <BR>
to subvert established artistic genres and <BR>
mediums. Originating in Western avant-garde art, <BR>
this strategy of transgression is now prevalent <BR>
on a global scale (...). "Experimental artists" <BR>
(...) from China (...) actively contribute to <BR>
this burgeoning international art. At the same <BR>
time, these artists attain their local identity <BR>
and respond to China's reality in their works--it <BR>
is in this sense that they can still be <BR>
considered "Chinese artists." [Wu Hung, 2008]<BR>
----<BR>
<BR>
You all have seen those contemporary Chinese art <BR>
works, in/from the 1990 and early 2000s mostly, <BR>
may it be a Mao Zedong in depicted like Marilyn <BR>
Monroe looking like a work of American Pop Art, <BR>
or Song Dong's traditional classroom installation <BR>
showing pupils seemingly reading traditional <BR>
scriptures and books that, however, consist of <BR>
blank pages. You are also aware of, that what Wu <BR>
Hung calls "strategy of transgression," has also <BR>
inspired many critical voices stating that this <BR>
very strategy has become a market gimmick for <BR>
Chinese artist, helping them to sell their works <BR>
overseas, exactly because this "attain[ed] (...) <BR>
local identity" is exactly what the West is <BR>
expecting: large-scale Pop Art alike artwork with <BR>
often easy to understand, clear political or <BR>
social political messages, works that fit <BR>
perfectly into every U.S. corporate office <BR>
lobby--art that has a highly entertaining value, <BR>
is playful yet critical, local and global at the <BR>
same time, thus perfectly post-modern in its <BR>
concept.<BR>
<BR>
This same strategy is also widely be found in <BR>
music videos. See for example the music videos <BR>
from the successful Russian band 'Leningrad.' The <BR>
same "strategy of transgression" can bee found <BR>
here, also a perfect example of a post-modern <BR>
group, a post-modern Gesamtkunstwerk using all <BR>
the same strategies of quoting past culture and <BR>
politics (here, as in China, often socialist <BR>
phrases or typical situations, jokes, or genres <BR>
[e.g. reworking Vladimir Vysotsky song texts or <BR>
specific formats of performances, etc.]), binding <BR>
them into a transgressive strategy that thereby <BR>
attains local identity while being highly <BR>
entertaining and (often) having international <BR>
appeal.<BR>
Two recent examples:<BR>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7NMsywVQhY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7NMsywVQhY</a><BR>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPCyR-tR4_M">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPCyR-tR4_M</a><BR>
<BR>
Now, what I do not yet understand from your <BR>
conference (call for papers) announcement is how <BR>
you are using--in connection with "transgression" <BR>
and "contemporary Korea"-- all these terms: <BR>
"secular, "secularization," "demystification," <BR>
and the phrase "transgression as a secular <BR>
value." I do understand that "transgression" <BR>
seems originally, etymologically speaking, a word <BR>
related to theology. But it seems hardly being <BR>
used this way today when talking about <BR>
contemporary society. I therefore also have <BR>
problems understanding what you refer to with <BR>
"secular" and "secularization" when talking about <BR>
contemporary Korea--or "demystification." To me <BR>
these terms all make some sense when talking <BR>
about e.g. the 14th or 15th centuries in Europe <BR>
(or East Asia?), but I am at a loss in this case. <BR>
Please do not necessarily understand this as <BR>
criticism, I might just not understand how you <BR>
use these terms and would like to hear more.<BR>
<BR>
And a last note: my above examples from art and <BR>
video art as regards to the use of transgression <BR>
were not coincidentally from China and Russia, <BR>
and not from Korea. As most of us here on the <BR>
list I know much better about Korean culture than <BR>
Chinese or Russian, but I see relatively little <BR>
of applied "strategies of transgression" in <BR>
Korean culture, **if** compared to what's going <BR>
on internationally. A simple indicator: graffiti. <BR>
Graffiti, supposed to be sub-culture, has made <BR>
its way's to the modern art museums since a few <BR>
years. Some time ago I stumbled over a small book <BR>
on graffiti in East Asia, and the author who had <BR>
interviewed some of the Korean graffiti sprayers <BR>
pointed out that Korea was the only country he <BR>
had visited where graffiti art was not <BR>
provocative but rather decorative and trying to <BR>
please the passers by, and that was also what an <BR>
interviewed graffiti sprayer told him they wanted <BR>
to do. To me it would then possibly be a reverse <BR>
question--why are there so few Korean artists, <BR>
musicians, writers using strategies of <BR>
transgression in a society that has seen so such <BR>
huge social political and economic changes in <BR>
such a short period of time?<BR>
<BR>
This is a big topic, and a very interesting one! Thanks.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
Best,<BR>
Frank<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
>Perspectives on Contemporary Korea Conference Series 2<BR>
><BR>
>Call for Papers<BR>
><BR>
>Transgression as a Secular Value: Korea in Transition?<BR>
><BR>
>University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Oct. 26, 2012<BR>
><BR>
>Sponsored by the Nam Center for Korean Studies, University of Michigan<BR>
><BR>
><BR>
>Crossing over limits, infringing the law, and <BR>
>ignoring convention are often cited as examples <BR>
>of transgression. In traditional Korea where <BR>
>religion played a vital role in demarcating <BR>
>social and personal boundaries transgressive <BR>
>acts (e.g. engaging in illicit sexual behavior, <BR>
>challenging gender norms, defying social <BR>
>hierarchies, defacing icons and symbols, using <BR>
>excessive violence etc.) often served as a <BR>
>critical means for testing these boundaries of <BR>
>social acceptability, identity, power, and <BR>
>truth. But what happens to these transgressive <BR>
>acts after the “demystification” and <BR>
>“secularization” of society? Do they become <BR>
>obsolete? If they still test boundaries, then <BR>
>whose boundaries do these transgressive acts <BR>
>test?<BR>
><BR>
>Taking cue from the proliferation of successful <BR>
>Korean films that take transgression as their <BR>
>central theme, the international conference, <BR>
>“Transgression as a secular value: Korea in <BR>
>transition?,” hopes to bring together scholars <BR>
>from both the social sciences and humanities to <BR>
>address these and other similar questions about <BR>
>the significance of transgression in modern and <BR>
>pre-modern Korea. The chief objective of this <BR>
>conference is to investigate the possibility of <BR>
>reading the surging interest in transgression, <BR>
>which has arguably attained an air of sacredness <BR>
>in mainstream culture, as an instance of a <BR>
>search for a “secular” value. The conference <BR>
>will therefore encourage its participants to <BR>
>ask, when and how did transgression become so <BR>
>desirable and consumer friendly (and not just <BR>
>possible) in Korea? And, should we associate <BR>
>this attitude towards transgression with “the <BR>
>secular”?<BR>
><BR>
>The conference will explore the notion of <BR>
>transgression as a “secular” value from a <BR>
>comparative perspective—both temporal and <BR>
>spatial—to underscore and contribute to the <BR>
>growing debate on the heterogeneous nature of <BR>
>secularity as a way of life. The organizers of <BR>
>the conference therefore welcome papers that <BR>
>critically examine transgression in either <BR>
>modern or pre-modern Korea and also papers that <BR>
>discuss transgression in a broader Asian or <BR>
>global context.<BR>
><BR>
>Please submit an abstract of no more than 300 <BR>
>words to conference organizers at <BR>
>transgression@umich.edu by June 4, 2012. Please <BR>
>include name, institutional affiliation, and <BR>
>contact information.<BR>
><BR>
>Selected participants will be asked to submit <BR>
>completed papers by September 28, 2012.<BR>
><BR>
>The Nam Center for Korean Studies will award <BR>
>travel grants to accepted participants to defray <BR>
>costs of attendance. Lodging and onsite meals <BR>
>will be provided by the conference. Conference <BR>
>organizers plan to have selected papers <BR>
>published in an edited volume.<BR>
><BR>
>Organizers: Juhn Ahn (Department of Asian <BR>
>Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan, <BR>
>jahn@umich.edu) and Nojin Kwak (Nam <BR>
>Center/Department of Communication Studies, <BR>
>University of Michigan, kwak@umich.edu)<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
--<BR>
--------------------------------------<BR>
Frank Hoffmann<BR>
<a href="http://koreaweb.ws">http://koreaweb.ws</a><BR>
<BR>
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