본 논문은 이완의 작업, <메이드인>(2013)과 <고유시>(2017)를 중심으로, 포디즘 이후 등장한 네트워크 사회의 기술적 및 경제적 전환의 동기와 인과를 조명한다. 이 특정한 역사적 맥락에서 노동과 자본주의 가속도, 그리고 그 사회경제적 구조의 권력 역학이 행복의 개념과 이미 지를 개인적 이상에서 정량화된 기호의 척도로 전환하는 과정을 분석한다. 특히 1980년대 이후 디지털 네트워크의 융합은 물질적 상품을 넘 어 기호와 데이터의 생산 및 소비가 지배적인 환경을 조성하며, 글로벌 소비사회에서 개인 행복 담론이 노동의 추상화, 시간의 공간화, 그리고 계층적 구분과 동질화의 역학 속에서 재구성되는 방식을 드러낸다. 본 연구는 이완의 작업을 중심으로, 디지털 스펙터클이 초래하는 개인 행복 조건의 상품화 과정을 조명하며, 이를 통해 현대 소비사회에서 수직적 계층화와 수평적 동질화를 지속시키는 구조적 역학을 고찰한다.

This paper intends to examine the significance of the “Minjoong Misool(People's art)” of the 1980s emerged in Korea in its social, cultural, and art historical context. This paper also aims to provide an analysis of the meaning and form of the individual artist's works, which have been overlooked under the dominant discourse that has emphasized their political role as a collective group. In particular, this paper scrutinizes the work of “Critical Realists” by examining the way in which they perceived Korean society in the early 1980s and visualized their experiences of the period. The figurative art newly emerged in the early 1980s challenged the formalist Modernism, which was adopted into Korea and translated into monochrome paintings and the work of the conversative academicism of the 1970s. The figurative art encouraged a social communication and moreover it intended to criticize the conflicts in the political, economical, and social domains in Korea. The targets of its critique include the unavoidable results of the unprecedented development of economy, various social phenomena of the post-industrial society, and the growth of the commercialized kitsch culture. Along with Shin, Hak-chul's work that incorporates collage technique since the 1980s, the work of some members of “Reality and Utterance” and “Im- sul-nyun” exemplify their critical interests in disclosing the false dream of wealth and happiness by both referring to and drawing on the utopian fantasy manipulated and distributed by mass media and commercial advertisements. This paper pays particular attention to Nouvelle Figuration emerged in France and Europe during the 1960s, which is comparable to the new figurative art emerged in Korea during the 1980s. Nouvelle Figuration criticized the autonomy in art isolated itself from political and social reality after WWII, in particular the indifference of Informel and abstract art as well as American abstract art. Moreover it became rather politicized around May of 1968. Given that French Nouvelle Figuration was introduced in Korea in 1982 and made a significant contribution to the formation of figurative art in Korea, it should be noted that the new figurative art emerged in the 1980s in Korea cannot be categorized merely in relation to People's Art. This paper intends to critically redress the notion that People's art was formed in the particular political, economical, and cultural context of Korea independent of the contemporary artistic practices outside Korea. It will provide a critical examination and analysis of the content and form of the new figurative art, from which People's Art was germinated, in the global context.