Gallery view of Obama Room, Mina Cheon's solo exhibition "Polipop," at the Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, Korea, 2012.
Mina Cheon's Polipop exhibition includes Polipop digital paintings, video and sculpture installations.
This gallery view shows Polipop sculpture and video installation Obama Dancing.
The Obama Room is dedicated to the icon of polipop, President Obama and also the year 2012, the year of the dragon. In this gallery, the central installation piece is “Dancing Obama” where DIY Obama action figure, originally manufactured by Jailbreak Toys, Inc. is made as an animation of Obama dancing the famous Ally McBeal dancing baby dance to “Oogachaka” songs. The late 90s hit TV series Ally McBeal was famous for the appearance of a 3D animation baby that became an instant hit, and perhaps sparked a new viral sensation of the animation and music. Obama represented as a white figure suggests the controversy of race that comes along with his presidency, similar to Scott’s piece. Whether color, genetics, or social class determines race, the issues surrounding a black American president is even a household conversation in Korea. The hype over Obama and racial politics can also be found with Donald Trump’s request that Obama produce a birth certificate, where issues of nationality would not have been questioned if he had been a white president.
