Balancing sentiments through small voice
Gi Young Kim draws emotional coordinates on square pieces of paper. For the artist, a side of a square is the measurement of time, where coordinates of emotions, such as anxiety, relief, desire, hope, excitement and confusion, are calculated onto the surface.
After considering the state and size of the emotions, the artist sets the appropriate colors and sometimes labels them with a musical note. How many different ways to describe human emotional changes could exist, a large number of artists express their surroundings and emotions in their work. Gi Young Kim's work shows graphs, drawings, and music on a white square surface tailored with no errors.
How can one be so meticulous when describing a sentiment? Can color and tone to a feeling exist?
Cells of sentiments
According to the artist, the size of each emotion and the time devoted to it are different from one another, and the combination of emotions creates complex and unique ones. Happiness, for example, is formed by gathering security, excitement, and calmness. The cells of sentiments each have color and name, and Kim mixes appropriate color for each emotion. The cells of bewilderment are cream colored, scarlet for the excitement, yellow-green for the worry, and blue-violet for the hope. The author creates a color chart of emotion then draws its minute movement to depict the conflict between specific emotions.
Scale of the heart and mind
The floor plan uses a scale such as 1:100 and 1:000 to represent a building that is difficult to capture at a glance. The artist reduced the size of her mind to square pieces of paper and arranged small circles. These indeterminate size of cells are drawn on a scale that the artist decides appropriate.
Time system
The square paper used by the artist is a unit of time. Several sheets of paper arranged to represent the passage of time. Lines and small circles within a rectangle of time exist in the same time frame. Adjusting the spacing between the cells of sentiment within the same time frame stabilised their movement. Time runs at different speeds depending on how and at when it is conceived. The direction of the line, the spacing of the grid, and curves within the square represent the artist's time system, the speed of her emotions. Kim also studies depiction of the size and intensity of feelings, recording in a specific length of lines and shapes of how long a sentiment grows and lasts.
The conflict
The conflict is an ongoing series from 2016. Placing conflicting sentiments side by side to determine superiority, small cells content to find balance or converge into a single state. From a distance, a thin, confident line starts to appear. Although it is pencil line delicate enough to be easily rubbed off, it connects the exact points of the mind that the artist has measured over a long period.
Musical note
The artist's work sometimes looks like a well-organized piece of music. The sheet music lists intentions of the composer using musical notation. Performer reads those regulations and emulates them into a beautiful sound. The artist not only represents the sentiments in coordinates and color but also assigns them musical notes. Some works are records of tracing the musical scale of the emotion portrayed.
Artist recorded the process of transmitting sentiments audibly. The dissonance when playing two musical scales at the same time on the piano seems appropriate to explain 'the conflict of emotions.' The appearance of the musical notes in the titles was probably a result of the author's spontaneous reminiscence while creating numerous compositions. The artist's secret mathematical training is admirable. Gi Young Kim invites the audience to read the work, just like reading music, to view and play, imagine and guess the artist's emotions.
Soohyun Kim, Curator
Press release courtesy Whistle.
3F
12, Hoenamu-ro 13-gil
Yongsan-gu
Seoul, 04344
South Korea
whistlewhistle.kr
+82 (0)2 794 4775
Tuesday – Saturday
1pm – 7pm