Contemporary Monument

The chaotic aesthetic of advertising graphics has infiltrated everything from buildings to towels in South Korea. On the one hand, it’s visual pollution, yet on the other, the excess represents the relentless survival strategies of small businesspeople who are otherwise marginalized by the political system. Caught between this disdain and admiration, Yongwon Noh has sought to appropriate the advertising — sometimes of illegal advertisements from such as gambling houses, cults, traffickings of human organs — by aestheticizing it. When applied to classical design forms, the value of the aesthetic changes, becoming a critique of design’s own often secret reliance on advertising.