Curatorial Thinking and Writing, offered by ICCI, is designed to develop students’ critical writing skills in the professional context of art curation and animate contemporary art discourse through the medium of writing. The course is taught by Professor Travis Jeppesen. This is the second interview in a series of artist interviews conducted by ICCI MFA students of Class 2021.
In Conversation with Ouchul Hwang:
The Influence of a Diverse Life on One Artist
Ouchul Hwang is one of our ICCI family members, and he is also a prolific and influential painter, sculptor, and poet. Inspired by his father, he began creating art at an early age. Before coming to Shanghai, he lived for many years in Korea, the United States, and Japan.
His work is known for its sensual component, often reflecting his own life’s activities, dreams, and turmoil. Throughout his many travels, he has been influenced by different types of people and developed a brilliant and sophisticated style. In this interview, we discuss the influence of his diverse background on his artistic expression.
Verna: How long have you lived in China? Why did you choose to come to China? I think this must be a question that many people would like to know.
OH: I came to China to research and pursue my lifelong ongoing creativity, which is centered on Oriental aesthetics in visual arts and filmmaking. I believe China has unique, strong, and abundant cultural resources to study to develop different perspectives of life and living phenomena.
Verna: I have read that you have lived in many countries. How has this influenced your work?
OH: After graduation from Seoul National University, I went to New York for my graduate study in fine arts. I lived in New York for eight years and then came back to Korea to teach. I taught at Seoul National University and some other universities in Korea. In 2008, I went to Singapore and taught at Nanyang Technological University school of design and media. Then I went to Waseda University in Japan for five years to study for my Ph.D. in filmmaking. Then I went to Taiwan, China to shoot my feature-length film “Takao Dancer” and worked on this production for three years.
After completing all the shots, I took these materials to Tokyo, Japan for post-production. It took another year to complete this film. After completion of this film, it was invited to “World Focus” at Tokyo International Film Festival.
Verna: Seeing that you have a variety of art forms, including painting, film, sculpture, etc., how do you decide what medium to use for your work?
OH: I do not have any preference for medium for any specific subject. It usually comes naturally. I followed the intuition that leads me to a new world. I quite enjoyed this process without any doubt or concerns. I am very confident to face any kind of medium. I love adventures in art. Never deciding what the results will be, I just follow the road ahead.
I am doing this (as you can see in the photo): actually, it is my way of scriptwriting. After that, I use a computer to write and correct the script for my film. So, it starts as a drawing, then I do some paintings of the scene, then I make characters if I have materials, then I write the script – like this.
So I am kind of liberal when it comes to art mediums. Of course, I spent a long time learning all those techniques. It is required to know those mediums and you need to have a skillset to control them. Then you can free yourself from the medium’s boundaries.
Verna: It seems like the medium is not the decisive factor, it’s just a means of expression and will not limit your creativity. So what is your favorite painting? What was the inspiration for his creation?
OH: I paint every day. My spring of inspiration never dries out. I have so many things to draw and create. I am following this intuitive impetus. There is no one specific painting that I favor. I love all the works I did, whether people like them or not. I am following my spirit. People can have their own spirits that might be different from mine. I do not care about that. I do care for my own soul. I believe art is an extremely private thing.
Verna: Seeing your paintings such as “City Workers in Shanghai”, “Dancers at the public park”, and many beautiful flowers, I can tell you are a very delicate person, with a very detailed observation of life. Do you always record such scenes of life? Or do you just keep them in your mind and draw them later?
OH: Our era has many great devices such as digital cameras and phones. I record certain moments which ignite or bother my soul. Then I choose carefully how to convert them into art forms. Once I choose it, I work on it with a lot of research. Tender observation then becomes part of my painting subject.
Dancers at the public park Painting
Painting, Watercolor on Paper
Size: 30.5 W x 22.9 H x 0.3 D cm
City Workers in Shanghai Painting
Painting, Watercolor on Paper
Size: 30.5 W x 22.9 H x 0.3 D cm
Verna: I was very moved by the paintings you shared in the course group of medical staff during the epidemic. At the same time, I was thinking that because of the impact of the epidemic, many traditional painting methods could not be viewed offline, and new media art would be more easily seen and spread, so do you think this will have any impact on traditional painting?
OH: I don’t know and am not able to answer this question. However, I can answer that this Covid-19 situation affects artists as well as any other people. I have friends who are working in museums and galleries. They are preparing and presenting online shows. Trying out new ways of exhibiting is a challenge, but a very necessary thing for curators and galleries to do in this situation.