Park Hyun-Ki

Place: Seoul

Born: 1942

Death: 2000

Biography:

Park Hyun-ki (Korean: 박현기, 1942 – January 13, 2000) was a pioneer of Korean video art. He was born in Seoul, South Korea, and died in the same city in 2000. Park lacked technological training in video and initially felt dismayed that he could not create sophisticated effects. However, he purposefully chose to make his work low tech, often displaying still images or documenting performed actions. Park saw video as just one technological instance in the histories of innovation and of exploration of the relationship between reality and illusion. He approached the medium of video art through an Eastern worldview, and he saw video as embodying the spiritual aspects of both advanced technology and materialism. Across many of his works, Park perturbed the boundaries between the real and the virtual, revealing how virtual images were informed by the real, and how the virtual and the real could become interconnected spaces within the context of his artworks. Park is best known for his video artworks, yet performance, installation, and photography also marked major veins of his artistic practice. He dedicated the breadth of his practice to creating artworks that not only embodied Korean tradition, but also activated the ability of Korean tradition to relate to the human condition and to people from all over the world.