What do we expect of a painting in general? We expect a painting to give the viewers comfort and pleasure by maintaining proper balance and harmony of colors, lines and composition of picture plane no matter what is painted or how it is done.

What is a difficult painting? Whether the painting is abstract or representational, it is the case that we do not see the point of the painting although we recognize the elements in the painting, or that we can't understand what it is in the painting.

Then, what kind of painting is an interesting, or rather, intriguing painting? One looks at a painting and passes by it. Then one has to come back and looks at it once again. A certain kind of painting makes one curious of its contents and makes one look closer. This interest, or intrigue, is the precious connection between the artist and the viewer. If an artwork fails to provide the joy to find out that tiny connection in the world of difficult contemporary art, it will not succeed to share understanding.
Artist Kong, Sung Hun frequently crosses the boundaries between paintings and installations on screen. His works intentionally deviates far from the category of beauty or the comfort of the heart. At least, his works are not 'pretty' pictures hanging on the living room walls for the visual pleasure. The purpose of his work is not an appreciation on the viewer's part but a statement on the artist's part.
What does his work show? It is plausible to recognize what is painted and what is reflected on the wall. They are familiar sights of daily life which are usually so banal and so commonplace that they cannot stimulate interest in people. They are wriggling and squirming bugs or parts of human bodies, a dog tied to the dog house at midnight, pavements and well manicured trees in the deserted crematory at night, a war memorial, an octagonal pavilion and so on. We can understand what he painted but it takes a while to grasp the meaning of the painting. His works meticulously hide tiny clues to lure the viewers to the painting like a picture puzzle and ask the viewers for patience and positive approach to it.
Kong, Sung-Hun creates his works in different method from the usual way that is used to us. Putting extraordinary objects on the canvas or drawing strange signs into the canvas is not his method to make his painting unfamiliar to the viewers. His painting is realistic and representational. His works are not to be beautiful in order to attract the viewer's interest in unusual way. They are peculiar paintings that constantly arouse our curiosity and make us turn and look back.
There are no elements that we cannot recognize in Kong, Sung-Hun's realistically rendered paintings. He has painted night landscapes of Byukje where he has lived some years. Kong's series paint the scenes found in byukje town which functions as a satellite for metropolitan Seoul-for example, a crematory, greenhouses, and furniture factories and so on. The night at Byukje is a night that reminds the artist of the fact that the Philippine war memorial and the furniture factories are located. In his mind overlaps the reality that the descendents of Philippine soldiers who gave their precious lives in the Korean war are working in furniture factories for us. The crematory at night is deserted and vacant space in blood red and deep blue, chilly light without human traces. His paintings describe the scenes that can be replaced with a narrative at once.
“Reflected images on the wall by scores of the stereopticon are moving-up -and-down, wriggling bugs fixed by pins into their tails.” “A night scene in blue light. A dog tied to the dog house. In front of the dog house, there are lots of tire tracks in the snow. A dog stands indifferent before the tire traces of cars passing by.” “Empty park and several well-trimmed trees stand at the entrance of Byukje crematory. It was crowded place in daytime for the settlement of death, but is emptied at midnight after people returned home. The space savors its chilly atmosphere in red light.”
Kong, Sung-Hun's works present a certain situation. The viewers combine the situation and induce the speculation and completes narratives in their own brains. Whether his works are paintings or screen installations, there are messages the artist intended to convey to the viewers. The story that the viewers draw in their mind is namely the intended message that the artist wants to deliver. Kong, Sung-Hun says that his art is an instrument of the statement toward the society. The story he wants to express is not so difficult but makes us uneasy by the familiar but unexpected images.
After watching Kong, Sung-Hun's bug images on the wall, it dawned on me Franz Kafka's novel , and the common phrase of 'the existence worse than a bug'. and that of the existence or treatment 'worse than a beast' from the painting that has a dog in front of the doghouse. The dog helplessly watching the tire tracks in the snow in red or blue light can be said to reflect the artist himself or most people these days. The red or blue light can be interpreted as the ideology which the color stands for. And can we identify a dog with a group of intellectuals who cannot participate in the flow of overwhelming ideologies in their own times but just watches the scene in inertia? What is the meaning of being treated as a human being and leading a proper human life? Maybe it might mean the life that people can speak out what he wants to express and spread their own will without reins. His painting makes us think once more on the purpose of life, self-consciousness of the existence, commitment, achievement.......
The theme penetrating the art of Kong, Sung-Hun who uses various media is the existence of human being, the human condition, and his method is metaphor. The joy in discovering the clues in the picture one by one and 'reading' them is the method interpreting difficult painting of these days. In fact, Kong, Sung-Hun's works are unfamiliar to us but might not be terribly difficult paintings. Hejung Yum / Director of Artforum Newgate