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WK INTERVIEW
2007.04.18
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Name: Yoon Song Wook
Age: 32
Occupation: graphic design/clothing design/artist
Current Location: Seoul, Korea
Website: www.wk1.org
TNG: When did you start painting and doing graffiti and what got you started?
WK: Growing up painting was just a hobby. I took some painting classes at a fine art academy when I was young. During college, I didn’t major in fine art, but I did some graphic design as a part time job.
TNG: What was your painting style at that time?
WK: From the beginning, it was graffiti-based style. When I was around 10 years old, I became interested in skateboarding. I had an older cousin who was half Japanese-half Korean. He often went back and forth between Korea and Japan, so I was able to learn a lot about skateboarding culture from him. I also was exposed to skateboarding culture through American kids I met around the US military base in Seoul. In Korea at that time, there were no skateboarding magazines, videos, and the internet wasn’t big yet, so I learned about skateboarding and graffiti from hanging out with these American kids. Then, when I was around 13, I took a break from school and traveled to America, which definitely influenced me a lot. I went to New York, LA, and Hawaii. Living in America was great, I partied a lot and had a good time, but after about 3 months, I decided to come back to Korea.
TNG: Most of your works that I’ve seen on the street are ‘WK’ based tags. How did the name WK come about and do these pieces make up the bulk of your work?
WK: My given name is Yoon Sung Wook. ‘WK’ came from the letters in ‘Wook’. From the beginning, I was bombing, stenciling, and tagging my name on the streets whenever I could. I also did abstract work as well, but it was hard for me to find the meaning behind these more complicated graffiti pieces. A lot of the graffiti back then all looked the same. For me, I really needed to find my own original style. I think it was around 2000 when my style really changed.
TNG: Do you consider yourself a fine artist? Do you see a difference between fine art and street art? Did you attend art school?
WK: I’ve always felt there is no need for a distinction between the two. If I paint on a canvas, it’s fine art; if I paint on the street it’s street art. For me, painting is painting. A lot of people feel like they have to categorize an artist’s work into fine art or street art. I don’t think the difference between art made in art school and art made as part of skateboarding culture is very important.
TNG: How do you feel about galleries and high-art culture? Has your work ever been shown in a gallery?
WK: I think I’ve done about 5 exhibitions in galleries. Some were in Hongdae, some in Chungdam-dong, and I had a group show in Gangnam. I’ve also done a few shows on the street with other graffiti artists.
TNG: How did you arrange these shows? Did you send out your portfolio to different galleries?
WK: Usually, a gallery would first have to find sponsors for the exhibition and then they would contact me and ask me to participate. In 2004, I was part of the first graffiti exhibition in Korea. I had a connection with the director who wanted to plan that show. These days, there aren’t that many graffiti shows in the fine art galleries. About 3 months after that first show, I was contacted 2 or 3 times by other galleries who wanted to try graffiti/street art exhibitions. So, I ended up doing a one month show at another gallery in Seoul. It’s kind of crazy because after that show ended, the owner of the gallery didn’t like it, so he fired the curator. So you can see the street art scene in Seoul is still quite small. I think a lot of galleries still only want to show ‘fine art’ or ‘high art’. Even now, my friends and I don’t have time or money to plan street art exhibitions.
TNG: A lot of people consider you the pioneer of Seoul street art; do feel a responsibility to help out younger street artists?
WK: There’s actually not that many opportunities for younger street artists in Seoul who want to do exhibitions or shows. Right now there are a lot of kids who are into graffiti in Seoul, but most of them aren’t really interested in getting their work up in a gallery. I think it’s similar in America, a lot of young graffiti artists just want to get up on the street. Also, kids coming out of art school learn how to meet gallery directors and organize shows for themselves, whereas lots of graffiti artists don’t know how to go about getting their work into a gallery.
TNG: You’ve had some experience with showing your work in galleries. Is that still something you are interested in doing?
WK: Yeah, if there is a chance for me to be in an exhibition at a gallery, I want to do it. Younger graffiti artists in Seoul don’t even know they have the option to do a show in an art gallery, so I want to show them that they do have the option. You know, some graffiti artists might never want to see their work in a gallery, only on the street, but the younger artists should at least know they have a choice or the opportunity. It’d be great to open my own gallery someday to help out some of these younger artists, but even for me that’s really difficult.
