Bahc Yiso (, 23 June 1957 – 26 April 2004), also known as Mo Bahc, was a South Korean visual artist, cultural organizer, curator, theorist, and educator.
He went by three first names during his lifetime; while Cheol-ho () was his legal name, he adopted the name Mo () during his time in New York, which he changed to Yiso () when he returned to South Korea. Both of the adopted names indicate his self-identification of being displaced or on the periphery, which he had hoped to be a position of privilege "with more freedom to do something unexpected."Lippard, Lucy R. Mixed blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America. New York: Pantheon Books, 1990.
In New York, he was noted as the founder and director of Minor Injury, an alternative space in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and a co-founder of SEORO Korean Cultural Network, a Korean American artists' network that bridged Korean American artists of various immigration backgrounds. His works produced in New York reflect his engagement with the time's political and cultural movement addressing the systemic marginalization of minority groups and questioning issues surrounding race and identity.
His time in Korea is said to have been a prolific period for Bahc as an artist, producing works beyond the realm of identity politics. Bahc's interested in reforming Korea's art education system also led him to lecture drawing at SADI, among other universities. Bahc has been credited as a critical figure in Korea's contemporary art scene, especially for introducing the American discourse of poststructuralism or critical postmodernism by his writing and translation work.
Early life Bahc was born in Busan as the youngest to a family of six children and given the name Cheol-ho (). Following the promotion of his father who worked for The Republic of Korea National Red Cross, the family moved from Busan to Seoul in 1967. Bahc's chronic health issues posed difficulties for him attending high school, especially participating in the military training that was compulsory at the time. After dropping out, Bahc took and passed the Korean High School Graduation Equivalency Examination, known in Korean as geom-jeong-go-shi ()."Artist's Bio." In Pak I-so: kirok kwa kiŏk [Bahc Yiso: Memos and Memories], edited by Tae-gun Im and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, 22-29. Kyŏnggi-do Kwach'ŏn-si: Kungnip Hyŏndae Misulgwan, 2020. , .
Education Bahc studied painting at Hongik University, graduating in 1981, the year following the Gwangju Uprising. In 1982, Bahc moved to New York City to further pursue his studies at Pratt Institute, where he earns an MFA degree in May 1985.Chung, Yeon Shim and Kimberly Chung. "Postmodern New Generation Art in Korea." In Korean Art from 1953: Collision, Innovation, Interaction, edited by Chung, Yeon Shim, Kimberly Chung, Sunjung Kim, and Keith B. Wagner, 180–207. London: Phaidon, 2020. ISBN 9780714878331. OCLC 1155063660.
Career
In New York City: 1982–1994 One of his first notable works, Mo Bahc's Fast After Thanksgiving Day (1984) was performed after attending a Thanksgiving dinner, fasting for three days, and crossing the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, as he dragged behind him a plastic-molded rice pot by a rope tied around his neck.Jung, Hunyee, "The Unbearable Lightness of Communication, and Weight of Being: The World of Bahc Mo's Art." In Pak Mo [Mo Bahc], edited by Mo Bahc, 56–79. Seoul, Korea: Kŭmho Misulgwan, 1995. OCLC 1104497028. At the time of the performance, Bahc takes the name "Mo ()," a Korean term used to address a person when their first name is unknown or undisclosed.Lee, Young Chul. "Chŏngoŭi yesulga t'alsogŭi k'omidi [Artist of Noon: the Divine Comedy]." In T'alsogŭi k'omidi pagiso yujakchŏn [Divine Comedy: A Retrospective of Bahc Yiso], 12–25. Seoul: Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, 2006. OCLC 501414572.
Minor Injury
Upon graduating from Pratt Institute, Bahc moves to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, as did many young artists who were attracted to the area for its cheap rent prior to the area's gentrification.Min, Yong Soon. "Park Sang Yu, aka Mo Bahc, aka Bahc Yiso (1956-2004)." X-TRA 7, no. 2 (Winter 2004): 48-49. https://www.x-traonline.org/article/park-sang-yu-aka-mo-bahc-aka-bahc-yiso-1956-2004 There he renovates what was previously a warehouse into studio spaces with fellow Korean artists and Pratt Institute alumni Sung Ho Choi and Il Lee.Choi, Sung-ho. "Ch'ŏrhomoiso [Cheolho-Mo-Yiso]." In Pak I-so: kirok kwa kiŏk [Bahc Yiso: Memos and Memories], edited by Tae-gun Im and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, 22-29. Kyŏnggi-do Kwach'ŏn-si: Kungnip Hyŏndae Misulgwan, 2020. , . It is also in Greenpoint where he co-founds the alternative art space Minor Injury in 1985, running it with co-founder Sam Binkley and later co-director Dave Hornor until the end of 1989.Chung, Yeon Shim. "The Minor Injury (1985–1989) of Bahc Yiso." Misulsanondan = Art History Forum 50 (June 2020): 323–354. doi:10.14380/AHF.2020.50.323. His interest in alternative exhibition spaces had stemmed from the experience of interning at the Artist Space during his last semester at Pratt Institute and reading articles written by Robert Longo, artist and co-founder of Hallwalls.
Bahc saw many of the alternative spaces of the time to have assimilated into the capitalist system by "[functioning] just as nurseries for the commercial dealers," pointing out that many were celebrating their accomplishments by naming artists who have since become respected by the major art scene.Battenfield, Jackie. "An Interview with Mo Bahc, Director Minor Injury," NAAO Bulletin (March–April, 1988). AAAO Digital Archives. https://naaoarchives.org/2018/09/30/naao-bulletin-march-april-1988 His aims for Minor Injury were to find ways to resist the capitalist art world. Located at 1073 Manhattan Ave, Minor Injury sought out its audience amongst Greenpoint's residents, who were predominantly Polish immigrants, and operated by volunteers to minimize its dependency on outside funding. Its mission statement also specified its goals to work with artists who were "racial, cultural, political and social minorities, or whose work reflects a related concern" or "recent immigrants from troubled or developing countries.""The Statement of Minor Injury," 1985. Bahc Yiso Collection, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea's Art Archive. Code MC2014.03/IIIa001/0001. These criteria were not set to simply promote artists of specific identities but to present the minor, social, political, and personal voices that were marginalized or excluded from the mainstream.Ault, Julie. Alternative art, New York, 1965-1985: A Cultural Politics Book for the Social Text Collective. New York: Drawing Center, 2002. ISBN 9780816637935, OCLC 50253087. As an attempt to reject the commercial tendency of treating artists as potential celebrities and instead believing they should to be treated as "common people or the residents next door,"Lippard, Lucy R. "Tribute Contribution to Fallayavada: Bahc Yiso Project and Tribute," University of California, Irvine, 2005. 10. 27-11. 23. Bahc himself curated shows at Minor Injury, such as Ego Show (Self Portrait by Anybody) (1985) and The Super Ego Show: A Landmark in the Evolution of Mankind (1987), that eliminated the traditional selection process and allowed exhibiting the works of those without professional art education, including children. News about Minor Injury as well as shows and public events taking place in the Northern Brooklyn area was shared through its newsletter, Word of Mouth: An Events Calendar from the Association of Williamsburgh/Greenpoint Artists and Minor Injury.
Minor Injury also hosted a number of shows by independent curators and artists, notably Homeland: A Palestine Quest (April 30–May 21, 1989), organized by artists Yong Soon Min and Shirin Neshat, and Min Joong Art: New Movement of Political Art from Korea (March 14–April 12, 1987), curated by independent curator Hyuk Um and artist Boc Su Jung. The latter is recognized as the first occasion a US audience was introduced to Minjung Art, after its initial showing at A Space in Toronto in January of the same year.Lee, Sohl. "Exhibiting Minjung Art Abroad: Tokyo, New York, and Pyongyang in the Twilight of the Cold War." In Revisiting Minjung: New Perspectives on the Cultural History of 1980s South Korea, edited by Sunyoung Park, 103–126. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2019. ISBN 9780472074129. OCLC 1243072565. Bahc assisted Hyuk Um and art critic Wan Kyung Sung curating Min Joong Art: A New Cultural Moment from Korea (September 29–November 5, 1988) at the Artists Space, further garnering attention to the Korean art movement.
SEORO Korean Cultural Network
Following the closure of Minor Injury, Bahc's interests in Korean art led to the founding of SEORO Korean Cultural Network (1990–1994) with his close associates, artist Sung Ho Choi and filmmaker Hye-jung Park.Park, Eunyoung. "Beyond Conflict. Toward Collaboration: The Korean American Arts Community in New York. 1980s–1990s." Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art 7, no. 1 (Spring 2021). doi: https://doi.org/10.24926/24716839.11629 SEORO, meaning "each other" or "one another" in Korean, connected artists of Korean heritage who were either US-born or recent immigrants, whose numbers had sharply increased since the South Korean government relaxed its regulations on studying abroad by the late 1980s.Kim, Sunjung. "The Turn of the Century: Art in Korea in the 1990s." In Korean Art from 1953: Collision, Innovation, Interaction, edited by Chung, Yeon Shim, Kimberly Chung, Sunjung Kim, and Keith B. Wagner, 158–179. London: Phaidon, 2020. ISBN 9780714878331. OCLC 1155063660. Among the growing Korean artist's community in New York, Bahc, Sung Ho Choi, as well as Yong Soon Min were among those instrumental in organizing exhibitions, symposia, and programs that discussed what constituted as Korean American art or Korean art in the US. The 1988 symposium "Korean Art Today" held at the Asian American Arts Centre and Immigrant Show at the Alpine Gallery, as well as the 1989 round table discussion "A Conversation on the Reality of Korean Art in New York" hosted by a major Korean art magazine Monthly Art (Wolgan Misul, 월간미술) are some of the major precursory events involving Bahc that prompted the formation of SEORO. To facilitate communication and cross-cultural learning between Korean American artists of various immigration histories, SEORO ran a quarterly newsletter SEORO Bulletin, later named as SEORO SEORO.Chung, Kimberly. "Interrogations of Place: Korean American Art in the Late 1980s and 1990s." In Korean Art from 1953: Collision, Innovation, Interaction, edited by Chung, Yeon Shim, Kimberly Chung, Sunjung Kim, and Keith B. Wagner, 314–333. London: Phaidon, 2020. ISBN 9780714878331. OCLC 1155063660. Bahc led SEORO's proposal of and participation in the exhibition Across the Pacific: Contemporary Korean and Korean American Art, which has been considered the most notable accomplishment made by the Korean Cultural Network. The exhibition, which was first presented at Queens Museum, New York (October 15, 1993 – January 9, 1994) then traveled to Kumho Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea (August 23–September 23, 1994), featured Korean artists involved in the Minjung Art movement alongside Korean American artists exploring identities shaped by immigration and American multiculturalism, aiming to project contemporaneous, multidimensional Korean identities and art.
Bahc's work and writing