TransPop: Korea Vietnam RemixBy Lyra Kilston
Published: December 1, 2008
 
Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Nguyen Manh Hung, Building (2004). Acrylic on canvas, 39 1/4 x 39 1/4 in.
"TransPop: Korea Vietnam Remix" This exhibition brings together 16 Korean- or Vietnamese-born artists who employ pop-cultural language to reflect on their respective nations' historical and current relationship to each other, including their bond in sharing an invader: the US. Hence the title "TransPop," meaning transnational Pop, of course. Artist Tiffany Chung, for example, presents a video about Vietnam's first pop icon, Lam Truong, who often performed popular Korean songs. But relations between the two countries weren't always warm: Soon-Mi Yoo's video Ssitkim: Talking to the Dead investigates the little-known history of the 320,000 Korean soldiers who fought alongside US troops in Vietnam and carried out mass civilian killings. Such serious considerations of past political traumas are alleviated by a few humorous takes, such as Manh Hung Nguyen's martial/agricultural paintings depicting airborne bombers toting old wooden carts of vegetables. By 2058, perhaps we'll see a similar exhibition by a thriving group of Iraqi and Afghan artists come to San Francisco. "TransPop: Korea Vietnam Remix" originally appeared in the December 2008 / January issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' December 2008 / January 2009 Table of Contents.
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