Kim Soonim
Kim SoonimBorn in Sobeck Mountain of South Korea. BFA&MFA in Sculpture at Ewha Wonan’s University Seoul Korea (Second major: Painting & Print Making and History of Art). Currently lives in Incheon, work in Seoul. Lecture at Ewha Woman’s University and Daegu University of South Korea.
2007 The Ethereal Space, Red Mill Gallery, Vermont, USA
2008 I meet with stone, Space Beam Incheon & Space Noon, Suwon, Korea
2008 The Face of Unknown got, Gallery Dam, Seoul, Korea
2009 Etherial, Gallery Grimson, Seoul, Korea
2010 The Threads, ISCP Gallery, New York, USA
2011 The Forest of Strayer, Open Space Bae, Busan, Korea
2012 The Wild Seeds, Space Noon, Suwon, Korea
2012 Mind Space, OX Warehouse, Macau, China
2012 On the Road, SOMA Museum, Seoul, Korea
2012 Nanun dol KAIST, Research & Art, Seoul, Korea
I am a visual artist who is interested in interpreting people and places I encounter in my life. I have my own subjectivity and try to express my interpretations with natural materials to make installation, sculpture, plane figures or performance.
I chose objects which seem to express how people feel and how this triggers a sense of place where we have been.
Needlework is my most used method of expression. It references my childhood. I grew up in the area of Sobaek Mountain and spent most of my time in the nature where I found my playmates in mountains and fields. I grew up in a large family and learned needlework from my mother and grandmother. I became accustomed to needlework and this connected me to make associations between things, working with needle and thread.
I am interested in the ‘encounter’ between myself and the objects that I make. I am interested in how the ‘memories’ created by those encounters make each object special. ‘Travel’ is my important method of work to fill these curiosities and to create another.
Kim says, “While I touch stones and spend time with them, they tell me their stories.” At this moment, “I” and “they” become one that cannot be distinguished from each other. “They” that are omnipresent “I” are my mind and my atman. She hangs the stones hoping that they forget the heaviness of beings at least for the moment.