Yunho Kim's images are characterised by their detached, observational quality, akin to documentary photography and film. Often focusing on a subject such as a building, vehicle, landscape, or event stage, Kim's photographs narrow the viewer's attention to a considered singular moment.
Read MoreKim explores wider possibilities for photography through film and installation. For Bus (2006—2007), the Korean artist presented a 13 metre digital C-print installation comprising hundreds of photographs of individual buses. The Fifth Travel (2007) comprises a series of frames pairing souvenir images of famous European landmarks with the artist's own photos echoing the same compositions. Buildings such as the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and Piccadilly Circus are re-presented through Kim's lens in a subtle interrogation of the social practices and stereotyped gestures associated with genre photography—in this case, amateur or touristic photography.
With a sensitivity to the parameters of the medium, Kim utilises photography as a tool through which to examine perception, spectacle, and the banality or universality of experience.
Kim's images have been published in photobooks including The Tedious Landscape (2003) and The Tedious Landscape II (2008). The 'Tedious Landscape' series (2001—2008) features the artist's documentary-style photographs of various peripheral regions of South Korea, including rural villages, landscapes, and bodybuilding and beauty pageants.
In his painting practice, Kim meticulously renders Korean phrases in oils or acrylics on canvas, in a graphic style reminiscent of traditional signwriting. Areumdapseumnida (This is Beautiful) (2013) centres the phrase 'this is beautiful' in clean typography against an orange background, while Jalbogogamnida (It's Appreciated) (2013) similarly presents 'it's appreciated' in white text on black. Though elusive in meaning, Kim's paintings recall his photographic explorations of the stereotypes and associations of a medium. In his paintings, this inquiry delves into language divorced from context.
