Taekwon V is linked to the desires of my lost childhood - abandoned because of society's disinterest, but it is also a work that drags in the irony and wit of that period where I appear in the image wearing a Taekwon V mask and sweatpants, longing for someone, while I am intoxicated, sometimes crying out in self-defiance, and armed. This work expresses the social awareness of rising problems, contained in popular culture and society, as reflected in an individual.
- Seong Tae-jin
Seong Tae-jin confronts his environment with humour, seeking solace in childhood memories, and borrowing the identity of the Korean heroic robot Taekwon V that was popular in the 1970s to unravel the banality, idleness and uncertainty of contemporary individuals in facing the ever-changing social decorum of transient environments.
His approach is illustrated vividly in The Western Sky (Lot 2523), where superheroes and characters of fantasy convene in a Korean courtyard painting scene. In a composition recalling this traditional painting genre, depicting pine trees, rocks and garden, and a high-flying crane, Taekwon eats and drinks leisurely at home, with servants and officials visiting his abode. Seong presents an ironic new utopia for his hero, in a conscious disjuncture with history, emphasizing the idleness pervasive in the scene and contemporary society at large.