Whi Boo KIm - Going on a Long Journey

Friday, April 15, 2022 ~ Friday, April 29, 2022

at the E2Art Gallery

Curated by Director Heeseon Choi

texture is painting, form is sculpture, and process is architecture

As a first-generation immigrant, artist, and Northridge earthquake survivor, Whi Boo Kim’s Geo Series speaks of his journey with alienation, conflict, natural disaster, and a desire to eradicate a nomadic existence.

Kim’s early abstract work symbolized the beginning of his artistic pursuit in the United States, wherein Kim, in his own words, asks “Who am I?”  Unidentifiable masses of darkness, conflicts, anxieties, and alienation in, as Kim states, “a foreign land and culture” is reflected in Kim’s early work. The Geo Series speaks of, and encompasses, various Northridge earthquake materials recovered from the natural disaster area by Kim.  The materials are incorporated in Kim’s work, to, among other things, convey Kim’s desire to end the nomadic life that has colored his existence.  Kim also states the materials used in the Geo Series consistently pursue architectural plans and dreams of recovering labor power.  His work also symbolizes the “aesthetics of process”, wherein Kim strives to “acquire plane through the joy of labor”.

Kim further explains, that as “line, form, and space meet, mix and bend, tension is relaxed, and gap penetrates deeply into the screen, and a number of strata cracks are bound to appear.”  This process is what creates the “archeological image” and “texture like a fossil” in Kim’s work.  Kim also expresses his recurring thoughts of the pyramid, as “the most safe geometrical structure” and his dreams of “unity of the earth and heaven.”  He also states the summary of his work as “texture is painting, form is sculpture, and the process is architecture” deeply resonates with his Geo Series because Kim believes it summarizes “human life itself”.