CREAM (CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME)

CASPER KANG SOLO EXHIBITION
캐스퍼 강 개인전

FEBRUARY 18TH, 2010 – MARCH 11TH, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION FEBRUARY 18TH, 2010 6:OO PM

GALLERY CHA

캐나다 교포로 현재 한국에서 활동하는 신진작가 캐스퍼 강은 이번 개인전 CREAM (Cash Rules Everything Around Me) 전에서 현대 자본주의 사회에서 필수 불가결한 돈에 관해 몇 가지 질문을 던집니다. 작가는 돈의 의미와 힘 그리고 그 필요성에 대해 의문점을 제기하며 그의 작품 속에서 이에 대한 해답을 찾기를 종용합니다. 그는 이 시대의 가장 강력한 권력인 자본을 숭상하는 시대적 분위기를 그만의 독특한 화법을 통해 작품에서 비틀어 표현하고 있습니다.

캐스퍼 강의 이번 전시는 대한민국 지폐에 등장하는 인물들인 이황, 세종대왕 그리고 신사임당의 초상을 차용하여 캔버스에 옮겨 그린 작품들로 이루어집니다. 돈의 무늬를 배경 삼아 작가의 세밀한 붓 터치와 정교한 실크스크린 기법을 혼용하여 현대적인 감각으로 재탄생한 선조들은 전시장에서 관람객과 마주합니다. 작가는 또한 자신의 사인이자 사회적으로 특별함의 의미로 통용되는 별표 연작을 제작했습니다. 전시장에 함께 전시된 돈을 의미하는 선조들의 초상과 특별함을 의미하는 별표 연작은 관람객에게 돈이 당신에게 특별한 존재냐고 묻습니다.

-하정경 큐레이터-

“CREAM” is a series of new paintings by Casper Kang which juxtapose the intricate images and patterns found on Korean money, rearranging the pictures known as cash, or bills, into new aesthetic compositions.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT:

CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME*

With cash, you can buy anything, or get other people to do things for you that they wouldn’t normally do if you didn’t give them cash. Most people spend most of their time trying to get more cash, since that’s the reason that they are working whatever jobs they have. A lot of people don’t like their jobs, and don’t really have much passion for what they do, but they don’t have much choice, because if they didn’t work, they wouldn’t have any cash, which would make it almost impossible for them to live within advanced capitalist society. Homeless people may not have jobs, but they’re always trying to get money, and rich people are the same, since they’re always trying to get more money, too. There’s never enough money for everyone, and that’s why banks have to make intangible money that only exists in the form of bank records. Some people may say that they’re not working for the money, that they love the work they do, and that they are fulfilling their dreams. But in a way, they’re really the same as everyone else, because they have to have money first in order to manifest their dreams in reality. Even if you won the lottery, you would have had to have money in the first place to buy the winning ticket.

Some people are willing to do more than others in order to get money. Some people will do anything for money. Society glorifies some professions and condemns others, but in a way they’re all similar. They’re all trying to get money. There are people selling their bodies, people selling their minds, and people marrying other people that they don’t love, all for money. People are selling out their pride and consciences in order to get money, in order to get either: (a) a product or service that can be paid for with money, or (b), more money. Society is at a point where the steps to making decent money are pretty much laid out, tried, tested, and true. Everyone knows how to do that dance, although many, if not most people, don’t really enjoy it, but can’t help it, because they have to make money. Some people are money making machines, since they’ll make more money than they really need, and keep trying harder and harder to make more money.

I once knew a girl who worked at what is referred to in Korea as a “room salon”. Essentially, she was a prostitute. During the day, she would work as a kindergarten teacher. I asked her why she had to work at the room salon at night if she already had a day job, and she told me that she was saving up for something. I asked her what she was saving for, and she told me that she was saving up her money to get a nose job. Some people can tell when people have had a rhinoplasty. They’ll say, “Oh, that person’s nose looks so fake.” Maybe that’s a certain “look” you could call the “look of money”. It’s the same as having expensive cars or clothing or huge mansions. Although a person’s reason for having all those things might not be to appear to have a lot of money, it will still have the same effect when other people see them. People might say, “She looks like she has a lot of money,” or “He looks like money.” All those material things automatically translate into money, and people can see money without the actual money being visible.

“If you look like a rag, but you’ve got fifteen dollars in your pocket, you can still impress people that you’ve got money. All you have to do is go down to the liquor store and buy a bottle of champagne. You can impress a whole roomful of people and with luck maybe you’ll never see them again, so they’ll always think you’ve got money. I never can have money and pretend I’m poor. I can only be poor and pretend I’m rich.”**

*Method Man, Wu-Tang Clan, 1993
**Andy Warhol, “The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)”

Images may not be used without consent

2010 Casper Kang