'Giant' is just a nameless empty mass. Whether it be family, religion, or political ideology, incomplete humans are in need of crutches to lean on. The giant as a collective where all these demands and desires are reflected has grown huge with flamboyance or grandeur on the outside, but it seems infinitely dull and lonely. _Artist's note
Who on earth is the 'Giant' that we had hoped for, hoped to see, and have to see? Minae Kim reveals her old issues bundled into a mass to the outer world through the exhibition, Giant. In the exhibition, not only the awareness Kim raises as an artist/sculptor can be found but also the essential train of thought on how one lives as an incomplete human. Everybody has the natural urge to live 'well' and we all strive to reach the approximate value of what is deemed as wholesome such as happiness and honor, while holding on to faith in oneself, social consensus, or ideology. We depend on and believe something, yet it is there briefly before our eyes like a mirage, almost tangible but not quite. It could sometimes suddenly disappear like a phantom. Kim wonders why we live in dependence of such a shell-like illusion which is even less likely than having one's head in the clouds. Through the exhibition, she portrays her accumulated thoughts on this topic. Like tracing the image reflected in the mirror with your fingers without certainty, Kim questions art and the world as they are shown, and digs them up to organize the temporary situation called exhibition.
Minae Kim accepts the given exhibition space as a certain frame, and actively breathes along with the context which can be operated within such physical condition. ONE AND J. Gallery as the venue has 3 stories with respectively different characters. While climbing up and down the stairs, Kim has perceived the different spaces as life's allegory. Previously the artist had been mainly presenting works that react directly to the architectural element of a venue. For this exhibition, along with her previous methods, the 'desire of the object one is determined to believe' and 'questions on sculpture' are laid out on each floor in a different manner, and there also is another desire lurking about, of creating a single mass which reflects the desire and questions. Like a person who keeps on filling a black fabric with gold color while hoping it will turn into a glorious golden flag, the artist shakes the banner which could be an illusion in 'Giant'.
Once you enter the venue, the underground level unfolds a deep and dark layer. In this pitch-black shadowed space, a pedestal in the form that seems to symbolize death and 20 carbon drawings are exhibited. In Carbon Paper Drawings (2023), Kim traces the silhouette of the photographed images of Greco-Roman sculptures or those of Michelangelo or Rodin that have become a distinctive part of art history and reviews each form as if copying the original shape. Each sculpture would be a spin-off reflecting a certain social belief in the respective era. But the image of a standing figure often clad in wrinkled cloth regardless of the era is also frequently found in reproductions of religious saint sculptures that are mass-produced in modern society. Whereas we could get a glimpse of Kim's research process of making the 'Giant' in the underground level, the upper level visualizes her thoughts in full swing. As if the artist implies that art, like religion, has been the procedural repetition of a certain faith in operation, she creates a form conjuring up the image of the existing sculptures fused into one of which the identity is uncertain. Kim has copied such form to create 3 big sculptures and displayed them consecutively on the 2nd and 3rd floors. A Series of Statues / A Series of Pedestals (2023) lures the viewer into optical illusion according to the viewer's eye-level and floor level, and some parts are even clearly severed. Like in the reproductive acts in Carbon Paper Drawings, it is also eventually revealed that the statue-artwork is not unique and complete in this continuum. Even though they might be presented like an icon dressed in sumptuous cloak standing on an impressive pedestal, they are helpless incomplete beings of mass which can be copied. They even have to sacrifice their heads in order to give way to space. They look massive with solid bodies, but in reality, they are plastic molds with their insides hollow, an empty shell.
Regrettably, the artist may not have been able to find a clear answer to her quest through this exhibition, and it could be altogether an illusion without substance like the 'Giant.' Trying to get an answer itself could also be a vain attempt. Even so, it touches upon the incompleteness in all of us. In the journey of a sudden life that had begun without signing up for it, we are respectively shaken numerous times at every turn of desire, despair, joy, and tragedy. We even flutter like a flag in the wind, not knowing what is what. Even though we know the human limitation of essence called death, humans have been always dreaming since time immemorial until the current high-tech times, of eternal life, longevity, and well-being, constantly leaning on another giant. Kim has put forward such allegories of life through Giant and confesses to her own incompleteness of barely surviving each moment. We are always depending on something and making some kind of image to lean on and desire, or we strain ourselves to justify something invisible. So, what is this 'Giant' that we live by? 'Giant' induces us to question and ponder on end, and genuinely doubt like floating in an opaque abyss. If you confront the feeling of doubt against a long-believed or relied-on object, futility can strike hard, but at the same time, there are certain consolation and excitement when you come to realize that the giant is no more the voice of truth, therefore it is just fine to take care of yourself in any kind of manner possible to live in this world.
About the artist
Minae Kim (b. 1981, Korea) received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Sculpture from Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea and her M.A. in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art in London, UK, DPhil in Fine Art, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, UK. She has held solo exhibitions at ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul (2023); Atelier Hermès, Seoul (2018); Doosan Gallery, New York (2015); Doosan Gallery, Seoul (2014) and many more. Participated in numerous group exhibitions including those held at the Kimsechoong Museum, Seoul (2021); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea (2020, 2017); Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2018); ARKO Art Center, Seoul, Korea (2018); Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Korea (2018), National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea (2018, 2017); and others. She was selected as one of the finalists for the Korea Artist Prize 2020 and her works are in the collection of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; MMCA Art Bank, Korea; Doosan Yonkang Foundation, Korea; etc.
Press release courtesy ONE AND J. Gallery.
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