Assembly of Parts with Mysterious Links

Sun-Young Lee (Critic)

Through the warmth of wood and the green tones of plants, Kim’s 3D works are based on the whole of nature including human beings, although it reflects a different aspect of typical nature. They are constituted with inorganic unity under the premise of human or god centralism through the assembly of parts. These parts flow unfolding with the exploration of mysterious links. They show the appearance of plants through being rooted in one place and the green chlorophyll color. But at the same time, they are related with animal form through the digestive tract shaped structure with which two end-parts are connected and the empty structure that passes sounds. Partially divided systems resemble machines but the reflective movement extending toward the stimulus, reminds the viewer of an organism. 

Kim’s works are not solely isolated forms but define a system with which many segments are connected. One and many, whole and particle, mass and molecule, inside and outside are connected with each other. It is communication that the ambiguous identity and the unexpectedly linked structure is aiming for. The funnel shaped structure shown in many his works is the compressed form of communication and connection. The structure’s abruptly switching direction is absorbing or radiating energy, material. One more distinctive form throughout his works is the “wrinkle” or cross section of plywood. In Le Pli, Deleuze defines an organism as a primitive wrinkle, folding and the folded. In Kim’s works, the subtle texture of accumulated plywood illustrates the elasticity of massive material.

The seed with endless links of wrinkling implies the typical character of an organism. ‘The Seed’ series shows a layered structure of opened ovary or a seed, lumping numerous particles together inside a seed form. The funnel or particles of various colors in many layered structure become the communicational intermediation which will be linked along with the wrinkle of time and space. At this point, all individual components are called to spread out their innate part in their turn. Kim’s work, often joins very different parts together, showing unexpected form and scale and a leap to another dimension, for example, a tube erupting from head or chest, a junction of molecular unit and individual, a seed embracing twinkling stars in many colors.

Kim’s work cannot be explained by Mechanism or Vitalism because his work doubts their premise about individual unity. In L'Anti-œdipe, the collaboration with Gattari, Deleuze points out that when structural unification of machine and individual unification is achieved, the nature of an organism disappears, and that there appears a direct relationship between machine and desire. Then the machine becomes ‘the thing which desires’ and ‘desire becomes machine’. The ‘Organ’ is the fractal form structure from which clusters of funnels make another funnel. The fine structure constituted with numerous molecules is heading toward the whole environment of vibration and flow. It is the desire that connects or cuts between organs without bodies.

This is related with what Deleuze said about Materialism in terms of bringing desire in mechanism and production in desire. The importance in the connections of desiring machines is not spiritual but the process of producing and reproducing. That does not endow with meaning but only with functioning, not symbolizing or representing but only producing. At this point, the concepts of being me and not being me, inside and outside have no meaning. A human is not the king of all creation; on the contrary a human meets all kinds of organisms. The theme of this show is the realm of free assembly in which everything is possible, that is the non exclusive logical sum, partial objects and the flow. The connection is running around freely from a body or a machine to the other body or machine as it destroys the false unity.

In Kim’s works, escaping is shown in not only the way of connecting each partial individuals but also in the funnel shape emerges from nowhere and proceeds toward somewhere or endlessly folding wrinkles, molecular structure which has the potential of scattering apart. All individuals create the one flow. There is not certain originality or special principal. If it is something it is able to be achieved only by being the other. In Kim’s work, parts cross over fragments and are scattered as particles. It speaks to us that Kim’s work is toward limited system but limitless system, not totalitarianism but disruption, not concept but material and not consciousness but unconsciousness.

COPYRIGHTⓒ2009  Gallery HAN