Gwangju News

Art

Our concept was to create a place where artists could meet, discuss and share their work.

By  Sarah Helen Epp

The Gwangju Artist Collective (GAC) is a collection of Korean and international artists living, working and creating in and around the Gwangju area. The group is made up of mainly English speaking individuals from Korea, Canada, The United States of America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Britain. The collective gathers recent graduates, seasoned professionals and art enthusiasts to make, share and discuss their work. Their interests and backgrounds include: drawing, painting, illustration, photography, sculpture, architecture, performance, animation, textiles and community art.

The artist collective is based in the Gwangju International Centre. The GIC has generously provided the collective with access to funding, a meeting space, invitations to cultural festivals as well as formal access to public space for our individual art pursuits. The staff and the broad vision of the GIC, has enabled unique English speaking groups like ours to find support and community backing.

The concept for the group was put on paper in the spring of 2009 by community artist Victoria Jung and me, Sarah Helen Epp. In the spring Victoria and I along with our close friend and creative collaborator Na Young Kim met with Professor Shin Gyong-gu and Kim Jihyun, to propose our idea for a creative arts group for adults. Our concept was to create a place where artists could meet, discuss and share their work. All members would be encouraged to take up leadership roles as they see fit; be it organizing an art tour; skills sharing workshop, leading a community arts activity or artist talk. There would be no formal leadership and membership would be open to all, allowing artists to come and go as they please thus reflecting the transient nature of the international community. The Artist Collective has three main goals: first, to create a place for artist to meet, second to encourage creative expression and finally fostering cross-cultural communication.

At the same time that we were in the beginning stages of creating the artist collective Doug Stuber was in the process of creating and proposing a new gallery space at the GIC. In addition to being Editor in Chief of the Gwangju News, Stuber is an experienced painter and art critic; Stuber added a lot of energy, experience and ability to our collective dreams. With the committed support of Kim Jihyun both projects were able to secure a Global Villages Grant from the Ministry of Arts and Culture thus enabling the Gwangju Artist Collective and GAIA Gallery to be formed. 

The GAIA gallery is open to all selected local and international artists to show their work. So far the gallery has hosted two shows, including “East Meets West” a group show by the artist collective which brings together the works of seven Korean and seven international artists. The artist collective’s second group show will be opening on November 8th. All are welcome to check out the work at the GAIA Gallery, it’s located in the wide open space which also houses the GIC talk and a variety of educational classes.

In addition to showing work one of the collective’s major goals is to encourage art making within the community. Through participation in city festivals the members of the collective have created two short term community arts events for local and international citizens. This year the GAC participated in “Together Day” as well as the “Asian Youth and Cultural Festival”. Both events were sponsored by UNESCO and carried out by the GIC staff, interns and volunteers.

During Together Day participants were asked “Do you belong in Gwangju?” Tracing their hands on paper participants wrote their four favorite aspects of living in Gwangju on their fingers, and on their thumbs they identified one aspect of Gwanjgu which they would like to see change. This process of identifying and questioning aspects of the community invited dialogue between participants and the GAC members. Throughout the day the colorful images were gathered together hands touching hands celebrating the positive and acknowledging the negative aspects of life in Gwangju.

At the UNESCO Asian Youth Conference dialogues about peace were one of the central focuses. Members of the artist collective sought to further the discussion through creative expression. International participants were given a blank postcard and were asked to draw or write a message reflecting their understanding of peace. The postcards quickly filled up with words and images illustrating feelings of hope and frustration in regards to global peace. Hung between vertical clotheslines behind the work table, the cards created a vibrant reflection on peace. Brief moments like these allow people to come together making their individual notions of peace a public statement. The cards were later featured in the “East Meets West” group show.

Workshops are another way in which the collective encourages creative expression and communication within the community. This past summer GAC members Caroline Huf and Tamlyn Young led an introduction to animation workshop with members of the Junior GIC. In a two hour workshop they introduced the basics of clay animation to a group of 10 children. The children created characters using yellow, blue and red clay. The characters where photographed and manipulated incrementally thus producing a sequence of photographs that could later be edited into stop-motion animation. The animation was edited by Tamlyn Young, producing a playful three minute animation. The final animation was fun, creative and very colorful. Workshops like these encourage creativity, team work and cross cultural communication. In a test oriented education system, workshops like these allow children the opportunity to create, learn and express themselves through the arts. Their piece can be viewed on you tube: just search “GIC KIDS Animation Workshop”.

In addition to accessing public space the GIC has enabled artists to access private spaces otherwise off limits to foreign artists. This past August former artist collective member Caroline Huf created three short stop motion animation pieces in the Gwangju subway system. Contacting the Gwangju Rapid Transport Corporation, the GIC was able to get formal permission for Huf to document and perform in the subway space.

The subway station served as both a metaphor and a performance site. Using black and white tape Huf physically connected herself to the subway platform. In the film it appears as though she was growing roots while curious Gwangju citizens stopped and stared; toward the end of the piece Huf stands up and walks on. This piece visualizes the foreigner’s experience of temporarily stopping, living and growing in one place before leaving it behind. Thanks to the help of the GIC staff Huf was able to spend thee days riding the Gwanju rails making art.

The artist collective is open to everyone, no creative experience is needed. On average we meet about twice a month at the GIC. To learn about our next meeting please send a request to “gic-artists-collective@googlegroups.com”. The group uses Google groups as a means of sharing documents and staying connected. Simply send us an email and we’ll send you an invitation to join the group. Once the group receives the email any member can send out an invitation to host a meeting, lead a workshop or suggest an art trip, it’s that simple to get connected and access the group.

The Gwangju Artist Collective has only been around for a few short months, but thanks to the support of the GIC and commitment from numerous individuals, the collective has been able to flourish. That said, as a new group, there are still many areas in which we can grow, develop, and evolve – new creative energies, leadership and direction are always welcome. Please email the Google group for more information to help shape, share and create the Gwangju Artist Collective.

Our members include:

Gabrielle Berube
Tamara Croxall
Sarah Helen Epp
Becca Gibson
Miriam Ho
Caroline Huf
Victoria Jung
Jihyun Kim
Na Young Kim
Leroy Kucia
Maria Lisak
Ian Thomas McNair
Nicole Kirkpatrick
Tamara Rose
Hughie Samson
Jocelyn Stokes
Doug Stuber
Lauren White
Jo Whitham
Tamlyn Young

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