Reality and Utterance (Korean: 현실과 발언, romanized: Hyeonsil Gwa Bareon) was a minjung (people’s) is an art group active from 1979 to 1989.
The manifesto took its inspiration from leftist literature and advocated for nationalism (minjok juui) and socially critical realism through satire (hyonsil pungja) in art.
They sought to create a visual language informed by anti-imperialist and leftist aesthetics by looking to non-Western examples of nationalist art- like the realism of Mexican Muralist, Diego Rivera.
[1] The group's ideals were in line with the Minjung art movement which sought to expose the powers that were shaping the current structure of reality through socially engaged artwork.
Artists from Reality and Utterance wanted to engage the public with current issues and transform the exclusive and inaccessible system of art production and reception that was endorsed by the government.
[4]: 99 These ideals manifested in the group's use of figuration, narrative, "low" art forms (such as billboards, magazine ads, posters, cartoons, and kitsch paintings).
The critical realism (hyonsil juui) within their work was not confined to style- it was a political process of developing artistic subjectivity based on the potential of art to change the everyday reality amid the democratization movement.
Members believed that, "collective art has, in any form, alienated and neglected the true reality of itself and its neighbors by catering to the materialistic taste of the leisure class of by clinging to the high-toned idea of amusement.
Yoon appropriated the style of a traditional Buddhist Hell (naraka) paintings and featured billboards, merchandise displays, and torture to satirize the aggressive corporate marketing tactics and the egregious proliferation of ads in the built environment.
These "cliched paintings" tried to show recognition of the authenticity found in the common people's consumption of inauthentic popular images that were judged as bad taste of a false utopia.
Peasant labor is highlighted as the main subject within an elite, lavish home setting, thus disrupting the "domestic complacency buoyed by items of conspicuous consumption."
Artists Kang Yo-bae, Kim Geun-hee, Kim Jung-heun, Noh Won-hee, Min Joong-ki, Park Bul-dong, Park Jae-dong, Sung Wan-kyung, Son Jang-sup, Shin Kyoung-ho, Shim Jun-soo, Ahn Kyu-chul, Lee Tae-ho, Lim Ok-sang, Chung Dong-suk, and Joo Jae-hwan showed 106 new and old works that encompassed painting, installation, and photography.
For example, Min Joong-ki's etching Superman is Born (1980) was displayed next to two oil painting from his 2019 series Gubo's Haircut and other work 1939, made in 2020.