First published on 15 March 2024
Studio Visit | Kim Yong-Ik
Artist's Statement, 19 January 2024
Utopia was the Modernist dream. The dream that human reason, used and celebrated by the Enlightenment, will question nature, humanity, and the universe to establish new truths, and the development and progress of science and technology will lead us to utopia—that, ultimately, is the Modernist project. The project was partly realised, but its fruits were not evenly distributed, bearing catastrophic results such as class inequality among individuals and nations, imperialism, cannibal capitalism, and the destruction of nature. We are currently reckoning with this dark shadow. The endless war, terrorism, and climate crisis are a testament to the Modernist project's failure.
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Living through the age after the Korean War, I have been surrounded by material affluence unimaginable to me as a child. I am addicted to the sweet fruits of the Modernist project. I cannot live without my phone, computer, and car.
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Utopia means the dream of the Modernist project. Feeling it as distant shows the lingering aspiration for this dream; nonetheless, it also connotes that I am no longer able to hold on to this aspiration as the dream is fading away.–
