VICKY KIM

For this, her first solo show in Seoul for nine years, Kim has delved into her archives to curate a selection of models, sculptures, drawings, diagrams and notes, drawn not only from recent work, including the debut of a new series of spray-painted paper reliefs, but also the ‘pre-history’ of her practice since 2004 - in the form of a number of works on paper, recontextualized for the occasion.

As such, the exhibition serves as something of an introduction to Kim’s work, as well as an installation in its own right. Presented as a constellation of discreet elements in carefully considered arrangements throughout the gallery’s basement level space, the viewer is invited to seek connections, patterns, and trains of thought across time and media, as well as shifting modes of representation - from the notional to the actual.

However, while these elements appear related to one another, either through shared points of reference, aesthetic principles, or merely proximity - their cumulative significance remains enigmatic and just out of reach. Titled ‘2.7 / 4.8 / 7.4 / 9.4 / 12.1 / 15.2 / 18.5 / 22’ - the transcript of a formula used for mapping and drawing a grid (one employed in several of the works on display), an apparently logical, mathematical system of relations is superimposed on the installation as if the solution or key to some hidden meaning.

At the same time such formal logic is called into question as we inspect the works themselves. While systems are clearly present, so too is the corruption of rules and values - diverting and transforming the field of visual appearance into other manifestations. Each element in the exhibition could therefore be understood as material evidence of Kim’s preoccupation with envisioning alternatives to the realities of our spatial environment (and indeed how we occupy space in the first place) in some cases of an entirely propositional kind, while in others striving for some manifestation or partial realisation.

Yet these works do not declare their function or readily explain the reason for their existence. How might they be put to use? For what purpose? In the face of such questions Kim’s art appears strangely hermetic - familiar yet ambiguous, present yet separate - leaving us with the impression that, despite appearances, her works do not aspire to the condition of the architectural, but rather to the virtual - an articulation of the affect of space, as mediated by the space of the image.