Mo Bahc, the global artworker and the possibility of the network

Abstract

This paper addresses how Bahc Yiso attained establishment in Korea through vocational labour and flexible authorial practice of his prior incarnation ‘Mo Bahc’ in New York. In relation to the post-1989 contemporary shift from New York to the global artworld and the notion of the networked artworker, it shows how Bahc authorially negotiated this terrain to significantly mediate in the formation of the Seoul artworld. It confirms the influence of the late-capitalist network in shaping the global contemporary artworld, but also demonstrates how the expansion of this field facilitated artworkers who desired to locate themselves beyond the Western institutional and intellectual frameworks of production. In conclusion, it asserts that to account for the progressive practice of a contemporary artworker one should critically attend to the entirety of their labour and agency in the network; beyond and including the production of art works.

Keywords:

• Bahc Yiso
• Mo Bahc
• global contemporary art
• art networks
• New York alternative scene
• contemporary Korean art

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This paper follows the Revised Romanisation of Hangul but uses McCune Reischauer Romanisation (1984–2000) for the recorded titles of events during the period of its use (such as the ‘Min Joong Show … ’ of 1987). In Romanising Korean names, the example set by the individual is used.

2 <https://www.mmca.go.kr/eng/exhibitions/exhibitionsDetail.do?exhId=201807020001066> (Accessed 22 September 2018).

3  On discursive influence as the crucial political value assignable to the authorial position, see Foucault (1980).

4 On ‘agency’ and the analytical need to historically demonstrate this potential through precise structural and historical ‘demystification,’ see West (1990).

5 On Manhattan’s gentrification, see Abu Lughod (1994) and Simpson (1981).

6 A perspective shared by various former Minor Injury volunteers, including Sam Binkley (interview, 2013), Ethan Pettit (interview, 2013), Virginia Hoge (interview, 2013) and Dave Hornor (interview, 2013).

7 See, for instance, the divergent political perspectives offered in the essays within Golden, Deitcher, and Gómez-Peña (1990).

8 The term ‘Minjung’ [민중] was used widely within 20th century Korea to characterize a range of grassroots, nationalist anti-authoritarian cultural-political movements (see Wells 1995).

9 Attested to by the rebirth of Minor Injury on Grand Street in Williamsburg in 1990, specifically orientated toward this audience (Pettit, interview with author 2013).

10 For a full exhibition bio, see Lee (2006, 202).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Luke Houston

The author is an independent art historian, currently residing in Busan, South Korea.