The Material Metamorphoses of Inbai Kim
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH KOREA ARTS MANAGEMENT SERVICE

Objects and images emerge from allegory—that is a philosophy evident in the practice of Korean artist Inbai Kim. Kim develops singular works or bodies of work that focus almost obsessively on stories or cognitive phenomena, such as perception.

On a humid autumn day in Geumcheon, an industrial-residential district in southwest Seoul, I walked past an automobile workshop to meet Kim. The harsh smells of automotive paint and oil were a fitting olfactory primer for the fibreglass and resin objects I would encounter in his studio.

Less congruous with the image I had anticipated of the artist from his pared-back, monochromatic works online was the exuberant leopard-print shirt Kim wore, which he noted was 'a favourite' in response to my compliment. Our bilingual exchanges were humorously halting, periodically requiring simplification of vocabulary or the use of a translation app to bridge the gap between my Korean and his English.

Since receiving his MFA from Hongik University's College of Fine Arts in 2009, Kim has developed a discursive practice spanning semi-figurative sculptures, abstract drawings, spatial installations, and monolithic objects. In recent years, his exhibitions have brought together discrete sculptures and drawings that, though disguised in a cloak of formalist minimalism, contain surprising allegories behind their processes.

In the artist's Geumcheon studio, we circled around a large sculpture that had been presented in Romantic Irony, a group exhibition at Arario Gallery, Seoul, earlier this year. In describing the work, titled Metamorphosis (2023) after the 1915 novella of the same name by Franz Kafka, Kim contrasts the story of a man who wakes up as a giant insect to French philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy's text, Noli me tangere: On the Raising of the Body (2003), which centres on the biblical scene where the resurrected Christ forbids Mary Magdalene from touching him.

These inverse bodily situations—where a man becomes an abject creature in one and an untouchable holy entity in the other—were a fascinating juxtaposition for Kim. 'With the two stories, one focuses on the exterior, and the other on the interior,' he said.

Metamorphosis is a large, meticulously constructed structure with two timber-coloured propeller forms impaled on a stainless-steel stand. The propellers are made of smooth, sanded resin and fibreglass, with the evidence of the hand betrayed only when intended, such as in the glossy but warped bottom propeller. Even in these occasional instances of irregularity and imperfection, however, there is a recognition of it having been engineered to purposeful intent.

Metamorphosis was one of four sculptures by Kim in Romantic Irony—separate works that were grouped together in what was perhaps a gesture of wilful dissonance under the shared concept and subtitle of Three Fogs.

'I was looking for things that share qualities with fog,' Kim said. 'Fog is something that can be right before your eyes, but you may not see it.' He asked, 'How can I stimulate doubt, to ask the viewer to think about basic functions or structures, or to see the invisible?'

Kim's three other works included Mirror, Fog, and Chalkboard and Chalk (all 2023). Mirror and Chalkboard and Chalk play on the tension between functionality and the power of naming an object, while Fog takes a more research-based approach, where plywood cut in the shape of a geographical area of Korea is repeated and stacked into a floor-to-ceiling column.

Kim has experimented with these games around perception, visibility, and tangibility in other recent works. In Panorama (16 August–28 October 2023), a group exhibition of 16 Korean artists at SONGEUN, Seoul, Kim's latest presentation occupies the second-floor corridor—a bright, airy space with a view outdoors through floor-to-ceiling windows along one side.

Erected in succession through the centre of the space are three tall, linear sculptures, respectively titled Back 1/4, Back 7/8, and Back 7/16 (all 2023). Each consists of a single length of aluminium rod, carved into shape to mirror the rear outline of an upright figure. With this knowledge one can trace the contours of the neck and back down to the buttocks and calves. Protruding from a cuboid wooden base, the rods stand perpendicular to the ground and almost disappear into their surroundings for their slim, unobtrusive profile, cool silver tone and vast surrounding volume.

Despite appearing similar at face value, these works are each shaped to a view of the body at slightly different angles, whose discrepancies are most marked when viewing the three aligned from the vantage points at the corridor's ends.

Accompanying Kim's 'Back' sculptures are four graphite drawings on paper—Before Me, Stay, Back 1/4_drawing 1, and Stay Away (all 2023)—fashioned in a rule-based process of obscuring and filling the entirety of the paper, or just a part of it. The artist often begins by using a masking stencil to cover approximately half of the page; swapping over once filling the exposed area with graphic markings so that he only ever has a view of half of the work. This irregular dividing centre line is just perceptible in some drawings; in others, it remains invisible.

'The process is important to me,' Kim said. For the artist, drawing is a way to sense and feel materially and 'share two-dimensional information through impressions.' His graphite drawings recall the experimental nature of blind or automatic drawing, where process supersedes outcome. Making, for Kim, becomes a method for repeating exercises to exhaust the variables and dimensions of perception. —[O]