Korean artist Minjung Kim conveys remarkable intricacy in her artforms. Kim often paints, singes and layers rice paper to fortify hazy landscapes which echo streams of light. Alternatively, she tightly winds and twists the paper to create abstract patterns which team with energy and possess a materiality of their own. presents The Light, The Shade, The Depth, a survey聽of Kim鈥檚 works over the years at the聽56th International Art Exhibition 鈥 . The show has been created聽under the tactile curatorship of German-born art historian Jean-Christophe Ammann.
Kim combines her aptitude for traditional oriental crafts like watercolour and calligraphy with an informed grasp of Western abstract expressionism, which she honed while completing her studies in Milan. The Light, The Shade, The Depth identifies three distinct bodies of the artist’s work: panoramic landscapes of mountainous land glimmering through layers of semi聽ink-painted and elaborately singed paper; complex structures which utilise principles of order and disorder to create robust patterns; and landscapes which absorb blue and red brush strokes to transform calm and tranquil scenes into chaos and unrest at the artist’s discretion. This is thanks to years of calligraphic training, which curator Ammann describes as 鈥渢he dance of the dervishes鈥 .
The aritst’s landscapes reflect an Eastern understanding of the world as an infinite universe of processes rather than objects.聽Kim’s artistic prowess lies in her strength of poise, sense of temperance and the energy this channels into her work. Time, so evidently expended by the artist聽in the creation of these otherworldly pieces is another theme which informs her aesthetic.
The Light, The Shade, The Depth until 27 September,聽Luxembourg &聽Dayan at the Venice Biennale.
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Credits
1. Minjung Kim, Grey Snow, 2009. Mixed media on mulberry Hanji paper. Copyright of the artist.
