Visiting Pop Art No.1: Selling Hamburger, Video, 2’40’’, 2013
As a first series of visiting pop art, this video records the performance that the artist as a hawker sells artwork hamburger to consumers on the street, not in a gallery. The artist is ready to sell hamburger anywhere as long as the price meets the level where the artist and consumer can satisfy simultaneously, while it is not sold eventually. Through peddling the hamburger in this video, the artist(producer) can get a chance to interact with the public (consumers) directly without a gallery (middle person). The artist chooses, makes, and advertises hamburger because it is one of the most popular everyday products which the public can have access to easily. The purpose of the performance is to convince the audience of an intimate relationship between artworks and everyday lives. Beyond hamburger as a subject matter, it can be any artworks ranging from canvas to artist idea that can be saleable.
Performance: Visiting Pop Art No.1: Selling Hamburger 2014,
Video, 5’16’’, 2019
The 4th Art Factory Project, Cultural Station Seoul 284, Seoul, South Korea
Main
The project originated from the question of what is the public art. First, what is the art? Art is expressing the beauty of various spaces and perspectives, sometimes seeking commercial profits, or appearing as a public social return. Commercial profits on art the typically made up of galleries, art fairs, agencies, and so on. So what is the public art? Also, which category should public art be viewed in the real public? Today, public art in our society is usually used as a concept of the public social return, so we may have another question about the consumption of public art.
The artist thought that public art was not only a way of communicating with the public as a public character, visual consumption, but a real public art needs physical consumption could be included. So what do we do? It is best to have access to the public at only a low price for a gallery or other one-time project? However, this approach is also found only by some of the public interested in art. Who is the real public? It's our society, it's our neighborhood, and it's us again.
Here, the artist also considers the consumption of the public. Why are art purchased only in limited space? Can't people buy art in people's neighborhood and in the market just like other people's items? In society, the public have many economic activities in our society. The artist has noted that one of the many economic activities that are considered the closest to real life, door-to-door sales method. The project features the public as a consumer and the artist as a seller who travels around town to promote sales. This project core is that the seller is not using by some tomato or anchovy. The seller used by the artwork, and it can also expressed as public art from the artist's different perspective.
In this video, there is a local door-to-door salesperson. This is an idea from the action of sellers and consumers for convenience and profit in real life. The artist also shows that artworks can be so. Thus, here, the artist becomes a producer of the work and a seller who travels around the neighborhood to promote purchases to the public.
Now the item is a hamburger, but it will be possible a food made from a work, a canvas, some performance, the artist's idea, anything that could be sold. Although in the video, the artist did not actually sell, the artist is ready to sell whenever the point of the price that each other wants a match.