"Matiere, Journey of Time and Trace"

The early works of Kim So-hyoung shows traces of methodological pursuit along with the realistic depiction of forms. The recent series of his work moved away from the limit of material, the textile, as well as the limit of technique and are trying to graft into various objet or matiere. However, the point we must not miss is that the context of the work is becoming more conceptual and emotional, and the subjective inner consciousness or situation has become the main body of his expression. 

This directly displays the great craving for new artistic experiences along with the expansion of his domain in formative arts.

To Kim So-hyoung, the meaning of art is the act of defining himself in the atypicality of the time and the process of projecting and examining himself on the mirror of reality. His works have the silent but whisperingly murmuring resonances and the dark intuition like the implicit stare and tell us of intense and passionate stories from the inside. The experiments on the properties of various materials and the pursuit of experiments, the introduction of worn out and old objet, the quality of matiere expressed sharply and roughly, the natural permeation of metallic rust stain, and the symbolic shapes carved or scratched appear as the means of expression to revealing the inner side of the artist. 

Therefore the materie and the objet he use are not the subordinate tools or means of expression that induces simple material amusement or sensuous contingency. 

They are the direct interpretations of the recollection of childhood memories that are buried in many ups and downs of the life, the travel in the secretly hidden time, the tracing of the things that are erased and lost, and the suffering and the violent behaviors he has as an artist caught in the unbalance between the life and the reality. 

They are like the genuine expression on the face through which the inner side is completely exposed and the human skin into which the time and the trace of life are absorbed. This is why his works carry human sensibilities and clearly display unaffected naturalness.

Although art is such an area many people do easily fall into the habitual settlement that comes from methodological pursuit or repeated process, there are a few artists who firmly and resolutely keep their ways. 

Kim So-hyoung is one of those artists. For an artist, it’s only natural that she or he tries not to stay where they are but move away from conceptual and old frame. But it’s not easy to keep such a live spirit in the course of life. This means that it’s not easy to remain as an artist like artist and an artist with the spirit. Kim So-hyoung’s first exhibition means the beginning of such a spirit of artist as well as the first test. I strongly hope that he does not lose the spirit he had when preparing for the first show in his life as an artist. For this strong hope, I have great expectations for Kim So-hyoung as an artist, and I believe that we shall give him the courage rather than the whip and meet his works with lenient viewpoint than conceptual standards.

- Yu, Sun-tae

Lonelier for Being with People

Pieces of fabric, old wood and rusty hinges, rusted steel plates, simple matière suggestive of old grey plastered wall, and painting – Kim Sohyoung’s early works seemed liked mere collections of objects, sensual and painting- like experiments in form. They are all objects which hold time  –  the marks of existence. These objects, 

holding time and the marks of existence, become one to wondrously create a certain scene. That scenes is not an external scene; rather it is a time-scene which has been scooped out of time; it is a view of the artist’s inner mind; and it is a revival of memory. It is a scene which calls upon old nostalgia. Alive and real things go through the weathering of time; oxidized, eroded and melted  –  when existence become traces and eventually reduced to emotional texture; those lingering feelings, emotional precipitates. 

And as can only be expected, the artist calls these incarnations of time features of my mind, the scenes of the inner self, or the traces of memory. In these works, the artist catches onto things which go from existence to non-existence, from something to nothing – the trace of things which have become distant even from memory. 

And that is an act of remembrance  –  a memorial to things which are destined to disappear into time. 

And the artist pains lattice patterns. These may look abstract, but they are not abstract, for they are rooms, houses, spaces, buildings, cities and universes which are allocated to people. There are no personal figures in the painting; lattices take their place. Depicted are monads who take a room each, or who are lonely in dreams; they are the portraits of modern mankind, reduced to monad. At times, some of them move out of their rooms in which they were hiding. Then they crouch or huddle about. Taking a step back with zoom-out, endless lattices are like images of city viewed from afar; people are buried among monads. Thus the artist uses lattice patterns to paint city images; modern mankind is depicted as being buried – a cogwheel in the gigantic city. 

So at least on the outset, there are no people in Kim’s works. Rather, emotional precipitates from those marks, and monads in city, merely suggest of figures; people are not portrayed directly or overtly. And yet, in recent works, people have tended to take center stage. In that potential people are taking to the surface, and in that shift from scenes (of life or of existence) to people, previous works and recent works share much in common and yet are different. 

So people and crowds form the subject of painting. 

These at large come in two versions; people made out of fabric and figures painted out of paint tubes. They are people, and yet perhaps too small to be called that; each not bigger than a little finger. (Although some are a bit bigger, but most are small) Even a glance at these small and yet precise paintings betray the sheer amount of labour involved. For not a single figure is the same in all their multicolor presentation. They all seem similar, but none of them are identical; a true reflection of reality. 

Our life seems like the continuation of repetition, but no two days are the same (repetition creates difference). 

Thus those differences are shown in colorful, diverse people; and their various emotions represent varying qualities of life. Some days are vibrant like red; some are like yellow. Some days are fashionable like stripe patterns; some are more subdued like checkered patterns. 

Thus people at times form an element of scene, in that visual simplicity; sometimes climb trees, take the place of leaves and flowers as if they are some kinds of bids. Thus they form a scene of people. What’s striking is the landscape of people which are dotted on branches instead of leaves and flowers. Here, tree branches seem like our capillaries, complex webs of relations, and the network of relations which are formed through endless curves and waves of time for you and I to meet. These precise figures made of fabric, both visual (based on vibrant colors) and textual (based on textures).  

In recent works, along with those fabric people, 

the artist squeezes paint tubes to paint figures. Diverse colors are used to paint diverse figures. As with fabric figures, these people drawn out of paint tubes all have facial features  –  even with facial expressions. Of course, 

one needs not stick to an idea of realistic depiction; Kim’s works are not representational. Rather, different colors are dabbed on to depict bodies and heads; facial features and simplified but most lively, probably owing in large part to their vibrant colors. At times, faces are omitted – but they add to the reality of the whole picture with faces that do have facial features.   

As such, Kim’s works are full of lively people. They are shots of crowds, detailed patterns of vibrant colors. 

Up close, one sees people; from afar, one sees crowds and patterns. Thus people disappear into crowds and patterns. Thus depicted is the solitude in multitude. 

Crowd is universal and anonymous. Individuality disappears into common existence; named figures are buried in anonymous existence. This is ambivalence. 

People each want to preserve their individuality (they do not want to lose their own vibrant colors) and at the same time want to hide behind that existence of anonymity. This is paradoxical. But what can one do? 

The poet Ryoo Shi-hwa once sang; I miss you even when you are next to me. You and I must be close enough, our skin against each other’s; that’s how it should be. And yet the reality is not so. Longing needs a distance. When the distance is gone, so is the longing. When too close, one misses the distance and the longing – one misses distance and longing. The same goes for solitude. Solitude requires distance and longing. 

So I am lonely whether or not you are next to me. The artist too paints works full of people to show solitude in multitude. The paradox of individuality and anonymity (crowd) is depicted; the duality, or ambivalence of desire which at once preserves and loses self.  

It is said that people hide into crowds and behind patterns. Hiding behind patterns? The artist paints people; but we see vibrant colours before seeing people. 

Colorful patterns are most striking. A Nabi painter and theorist, Maurice Denis, said that a painting is a surface painted yellow or blue before it is a depiction of some subject. This is a departure from representational paintings, anticipating the rise of abstract art; declared is the support for formalism in the modernist paradigm. What makes a painting is not the content but form of painting. Thus the formal element is sufficient to make a painting. 

The artist’s painting at first shows patterns of vibrant colors; people are shown afterwards. The artist exercises formalism of the modernist paradigm while conveying the meaning of painting. This is a manifestation of that dual relationship with modernist paradigm and with formalism. Such awareness will expand the artist’s work. 

Moreover, the past journey of Kim’s, for example the view of the inner self and people reduced to monads, as well as modern mankind which has at once preserved and lost self with the crowd, shows that Kim’s focus has entirely been on the people- and that concentration will deepen an understanding of people.  

Kho, Chung-Hwan

Art Critic