In summer 2007, ten students from MICA participated in the college’s study abroad program at The Korean National University of Art (KNUA) in Seoul, Korea, including two graduate students from the GD MFA program, Viviana Cordova and Kim Bentley. Over the course of four weeks, artists on the study trip teamed up with two students from KNUA and created an art exhibition, which was presented in both Seoul and Baltimore. Each artist created an individual piece and worked on two large collaborative works. They also gained experience developing an entire exhibition from start to finish, from writing the press release to branding the show and designing marketing materials.

The exhibition, called White: W3=White Day, Weddings, Women, explored the color white through the context of contemporary Korean society. In the West, white is associated with purity, cleanliness, and modernity, but in Korea, it is also associated with White Day (their answer to Valentines’ Day) as well as with Western-influenced “white wedding” ceremonies, and the desire, and lengths to which women will go, for white skin.

In Seoul, the exhibition was held in several venues in the art district of Insadong, including Gallery Ssamzie, Gallery 175, and the SsamzieGil courtyard. Surrounding the SsamzieGil courtyard is SsamzieGil itself, an outdoor shopping area that includes craftwork shops, restaurants, art galleries, and many young independent clothing and jewelry designers. The shops wind their way up via a spiral walkway around the courtyard, connecting the lowest to the highest floor. Students were given the challenge of designing an installation specific to the courtyard space, where the artwork could be seen from all parts of the walkway and looked down upon from the highest floor.

The collaborative pieces included three monumental, diamond-shaped structures made of wood and fluorescent lights. The immense size and classic diamond shape of these objects reflected the absurd fantasy and extravagance of Korean “white wedding” ceremonies. These were installed in the SsamzieGil courtyard and then again in the Brown Center at MICA. The first set of diamonds were donated to the Ssamzie Museum in Korea, and new ones were built for the exhibit in Baltimore. Students also worked together to create a heart-shaped boxing ring, which alluded to a marital bed and commented on the difficulties of marriage, relationships, and love.

Viviana Cordova’s piece, Seven Vices, was made of seven panels of plexiglass suspended from the ceiling, each 160 cm x 80 cm. The panels were arranged in a circle with just enough space between each for one to walk inside. Frosted vinyl letters were adhered to each panel spelling out the seven vices of women in Confucianism, including disobedience, adultery, incurable disease, jealousy, failure to produce a son, talkativeness, and stealing. The words that appeared inside the circle were in English and Spanish (the two languages Viviana speaks), while those on the outside were in Chinese and Korean. Viviana’s pieces were donated to the Ssamzie Museum in Seoul, Korea. For the exhibit in the Brown Center at MICA, Viviana considered the new environment and used the front and back of the building’s glass walls to recreate her piece.

Kim Bentley built an exaggerated, overly ornamental chandelier by attaching large, steel wire circles and beads to a readymade, smaller chandelier. The chandelier thus became three times its original size, taking something already decorated and functional and increasing it to illustrate the superficiality and fantasy-driven industry of contemporary Korean culture. This piece was built in Korea and then disassembled and rebuilt for the MICA show. It hung from the third floor railing, suspended above a heart-shaped boxing ring.

In addition to the individual and collaborative pieces, each student also contributed to the overall organization of the exhibition. The two GD MFA students took charge of branding the show, designing postcards, press releases, flyers, signage, banners, and vinyl for both the Korean and the Baltimore installations. The press release and the marketing materials were designed in Korea first, before any of the artwork concepts were finalized or work was made. This posed a challenge to the designers as to what kind of images to use. They photographed sugar cubes as a background for the postcard and created a logo that included both Korean and English text. The sugar cubes tied into the sugar-coated, overly sweet feel to Korea’s version of the Western “white wedding,” and they were also used as a material in one student’s artwork. This image carried throughout the press release, banners, e-vites, vinyl lettering, and all other materials sent out to promote the exhibit. Students researched and contacted Korean printers and visited the site to discuss printing requirements. Materials for Baltimore were produced on a much smaller scale and only included a new press release, a new e-vite, flyers, and exhibit vinyl.

This was the fourth year of MICA Korea, led by program director Mina Cheon, an interactive media and cultural theory professor at MICA, and architect Gabriel Kroiz, principal of Kroiz Architecture in Baltimore, which focuses on sustainable green design. MICA’s curator-in-residence, George Ciscle, curated both the Korea and Baltimore shows. The program was also aided by director assistant Eugene Ahn, former MICA Korea participant and currently a graduate student at NYU Tisch School of Art. This year, Eve Andrée Laramée, chair of MICA’s Interdisciplinary Sculpture department, also joined the group for one week in Korea to lend her insight and critique.

Text by Kim Bentley, GD MFA 08