-Interview for 'Tactile Hands' Solo Show (2023)-
Our hands, feet, mouth, ears, nose and eyes directly encounter the world's surfaces. Our tongue, body and maneuvering skills are the tactile means to experience the earth beneath us.
Visual perception alone remains limited and dulls our desire to run, hit and tangibly interact with surfaces.
My works engage with the active spaces we move through. Not only the physical surfaces, but also the sensory environments surrounding the work become palpable.
This curious zone stimulates our hands, feet, mouth, nose, ears and eyes.
The works I create using my own "seed system" embrace these tactile spaces, making them perceptible through our entire sensory system.
우리들의 손과 발, 입, 귀, 눈, 코는 지구의 표면에서 나오는 모든 것들과 직접 만납니다. 눈으로만, 시각을 통해 사물과 만나는 것은 즉각적이지만 또한 직접 만나고 부딪쳐서 느껴야만 알 수 있는 것들에 대한 갈망을 약하게 만듭니다. 뛰어가서 부딪쳐서 만져보는 경험을 미루게 합니다.
제 작업은 만져보고 싶은 울퉁불퉁한 표면을 가집니다. 보는 것에 의존하기 위해 물러서게 만드는 게 아니라, 작업을 온몸으로 감싸안기 위해 빈 공간에 한발 더 들어서고 팔을 확 벌려 함께 숨을 쉬고자 합니다. 촉각적이며 껴안고 샆은 이 공간은, 손과 발, 귀와 코까지 뛰어들어서 만져보고 싶은 또다른 표면을 가지게 됩니다.
제 작업이 만들어내는 이 공간, 서로 다른 인간의 감각들이 뛰어놀고 진화하며 기록되는 그 표면들이 제 작업의 요점입니다. 세잔이 캔버스 표면에 만들어냈던 새로운 깊이, 프랭크 스텔라가 '공간에 그려낸 회화'라고 주장했던 입체를 떠올려 봅니다. 시드시스템의 작업들은 전혀 다른 방식의 깊이와 표면을 가지고 작품 앞의 공간을 감싸안는 셈입니다.
Q1. Please introduce yourself, focusing on the theme of your work and your working method.
My work explores sculptural canvas and tactile painting qualities that illuminate how we perceive the world around us through our sensory system.
I build up and break down painted surface waves using my own "paper seed" units, consisting of bold, densely juxtaposed hand-dyed colors. This creates a very subtle interplay between the paper's architectural structure - these elements never remain static.
The construction of my pieces evolves in a quiet, consistent manner all day long. My process produces ongoing revisions over days, weeks and seasons.
Our sensory experiences seem to affirm the delicacy and accuracy of perceiving all the subtle changes reflected in the work. However, the sensory records of each passing day prove quite fragile and not reliably consistent from one moment of revision to the next.
Ultimately, the inevitable quiet revisions are not meant to be monumental, but devotedly faithful to each poignant, fleeting moment unfolding here and now.
제가 직접 만든 수많은 씨앗들이 만들어내는 언덕과 골의 흐름, 색과 명암의 대조적인 병치, 종이의 재질이 만드는 부드러운 반사가 어우러지면, 단단하고 매끄럽게 빛에 반응하는 견고한 물체가 만들어집니다. 이 견고한 물체는 살아 움직이는 생명체를 느낄 수 없는 회색빛 표면을 거부합니다. 시시각각 살아 움직이는 물체가 되고자 합니다.
켜켜이 쌓인 색면입체들은 주어진 공간에 일어나는 빛과 색의 변화를 생물처럼 받아들이며, 그 순간의 시공간과 한몸을 이룹니다. 수많은 색면 씨앗들이 하루 종일 또는 몇 주, 나아가 계절의 극적인 흐름을 담아내면서, 마주하고 있는 시간과 공간의 변화를 담담하고 예민하게 기록하는 지도가 되는 셈입니다.
이 작업은 또한 그 시간과 공간을 오랫동안 마주했던 생물체의 감각을 기록해 놓은 개인적인 기록이자 지도입니다. 이 감각의 지도는 함께 시간과 공간을 겪은 한 개인의 모습을 담아내는 또 하나의 장치인 셈입니다. 마치 우리집 마당에 십년 동안 서있는 나무나, 태어나서 열살이 된 우리집 강쥐처럼 말이죠.
작업 자체에 담겨 있는 형태나 이미지 자체로 더 완성도있는 지도가 될 수 있다고 생각하지는
않습니다. 작품이 존재하고 있고 바라보는 그 순간과 장소에 예민하게 반응할 수 있다면,
그 지점/그 순간에 가장 충실한 하나의 지도가 될 수 있다고 믿습니다.
작품을 되돌아보면, 여전히 또다른 미세한 변화들이 작품 위를 빠르게 가로지르고 있습니다. 개별적인 씨앗들이 또다른 파도를 만들면서 던지는 속도감은 이 변화가 시각적일 뿐 아니라 시간을 담은 생물체로서의 특징이라는 걸 보여줍니다.
Q2. What is the most distinctive feature of your artwork that sets you apart from other artists?
My works function as living architecture or an ever-growing tree, not as static wall hangings. The quality does not come from the infusion or representation of the artist's thoughts. This presence comes from the instant perception of the artwork's "liveness", "velocity", and its "growing up" quality, usually associated with living plants or animals. The works remind us how our sensory experience not only helps but also betrays our tactile understanding of the world. However, through this betrayal, the next dimension of each evolution opens up.
저의 작업들은 벽에 걸린 가만히 멈춰 있는 물체로서가 아니라 매일 조금씩 자라나는 나무처럼 또는 살아있는 구조물처럼 다가옵니다.
이런 특징들은 제가 하나하나 작업마다 그 특징들을 어떻게 불어넣을 것인가 따로 애쓴다고 성취할 수 있는 것은 아닙니다.
제 작업들을 바라볼 때 느끼는 움직일 듯한 기대감이나 숨어있는 속도감, 이런 살아있는 것들과 연결된 특징들은, 우리의 훈련된 생존 감각들이 본능적으로 발견하는 것입니다.
하나의 착각이 아니라, ‘살아있는 것’의 어떤 요소들을 따로 분리해서 경험하게 되는 것이죠.
식물이나 동물을 볼 때 느낄 수 있는, 그 존재들이 가지고 있는 ‘살아있음’, ‘지금도 자라고 있는 듯함’에 가까운 여러가지 요소들이 제 작업에 중요한 셈입니다.
https://interlocutorinterviews.com/new-blog/2019/8/17/interview-ilhwa-kim
1. The form of your work is dynamic and multidimensional. How do you define the line/spectrum between sculpture and painting, and how do you conceive of your works in relation to those categories?
I categorize my work as "sculpture," not due to appearance but because of the working process. With painting, the materials are essentially pre-made. However, in my process, I sculpt all materials from scratch using various techniques.
The paper itself follows our studio's specific formula for how it must be composed during manufacture. Every element involves a unique process - dyeing materials, cutting with heavy machinery, making custom frames, etc.
2. Your artworks are highly intricate. About how long does it take to complete each piece? What isthe value of time spent hand-dying and hand-rolling each paper seed?
Each piece takes 3 weeks to 3 months, depending on size. The idea stage may be a rough sketch or simply tossing thousands of paper units onto the canvas. But the idea is never about final forms or destinations. Once underway, sculptural aspects take over. The movements of paper and colors reveal new possible directions, evolving from the initial idea. Listening to the internal logic of the accumulating piece guides the process most importantly.
Preparing materials is like making my own paints. Factory-made colored papers have limited hues, so dyeing was required from the beginning and constantly developed. It's like mixing my own customized color paints.
All paper starts white, dyed in diverse colors for each work. With hundreds made so far, a vast library of colored units now exists in the studio. An advantage is that dyed paper gets unintended gradations and irregularities found in nature, creating textures distinct from paint mixes.
After dyeing, layers of different papers are rolled and machine-cut to required sizes. Rolled paper becomes extremely durable - virtually un-cuttable with a knife. Though seen as fragile, it gains a tender wood-like resilience.
The rolled units' inner parts are pulled out to adjust each one's height before use.
For adhesives, chemical glues harden quickly but crumble after 10-15 years. To avoid this, a non-chemical wheat-based glue was developed, though it takes 10-15 days to fully dry.
3. The works change, as if moving, as we view them from different angles and distances. For example, in Space Station 4. What is the role of movement in your work, and how does it relate to perspective?
The changes from multiple angles relate to how the work embraces changes over time. Seeing various perspectives questions a single dominant view. But most crucial is how the piece embodies the fluctuations and vortexes inside and around itself as time passes.
Once while flying, I passed the same region in morning and evening, and the landscape looked completely transformed by shifts in light, air, and temperature. Imagining what happened to it across those hours fascinated me.
This experience influenced a paper relief I worked on, where piled units in the studio windows went through dramatic changes as sunlight came and went hourly. I loved how the units could reflect and embody all the space's temporal changes.
4. Some of your works, though abstract, are called "portraits"--here I am thinking of, for example, White Portrait 22 (2018). What does "portrait" mean to you?
I don't portray a person's figure, but the ethereal yet grounded senses between us on first meeting. For me, portraits capture the memorable imprints of those first impressions, whose meanings may change but remain rooted in that original encounter between myself and the subject.
5. With the ways that your work changes in response to space and time, what is
the role of the viewer in the process of world-building? Are we implicated in that act?
If we admit our current vision is not inevitable in any moment, I believe we open our lives to more fluidity and flourishing. But I aim not just to point out "your view is not singular," but to build an experience embracing all spatiotemporal changes. This can let viewers take a relaxed, naturally immersive approach, building their own version of the experience-world around the work.
I also want an interesting contrast: for the works to feel and appear as different as possible from photos when seen in person. We're saturated with flat images now more than ever. But creating distance between representation and actuality is an intriguing challenge. My gallerists are often surprised seeing the works physically after selecting from images.
6. What is the role of revision in your process, and how do you conceive of your work going forward?
Many paper/textile artists complete works in gradual stages dictated by the initial sketch. My studio works the opposite way. To allow total freedom until completion, all units remain unglued until the end stage. They can be rearranged, removed, or re-heightened as needed. This allows bold revisions even when very close to finishing.
Interview by Isabelle Sakelaris