Emotional SpaceKim, Bum-Su

2008.11.26-12.21

ArtVitamin() ()(),(),() () ()

(,simeonbak@hanmail.net) KCCommunications 1996.1.20 1-1971

2008 .

Emotional SpaceKim, Bum-Su

2008.11.26-12.21Savina Art Museum

Art VitaminSavina Art MuseumDirected by Savina Lee(Director of Savina Art Museum)Curated by Hwang, Jung-In(Chief Curator of Savina Art Museum)with assistance of Woo, Sun-Mi(Curator), Park, Noh-Choon(Technician), Park, Won-Pyo(Intern)Public relations by Park, Min-Young(PR Manager)Educations by Yoon, Hee-Eun(Educator)

CataloguePublishing Office Savina Art MuseumPublished by Savina LeeEdited by Hwang, Jung-InPhotographs by Bak, Hyon-Jin(Ciel Studio, simeonbak@hanmail.net)Translations by Lim, Sung-YounDesign by KC CommunicationsRegistration # 1-1971,1996.1.20

No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or utilized in any means without the written permission from Savina Art MuseumPrinted by KC Communications

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Sponsored by Art Council Korea, CJ Culture Foundation, Hyundai Acryl

,,,,,Special thanks toCho, Young-Joo, Bae, Eun-Ji, Lim, Hyoun-Jun, Yeo, In-Mo, Park, Sung-Ho, Yi, Chae-Sin

Emotional Space

Kim, Bum-Su

2008.11.26 (WED) - 12.21 (SUN)

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The work of Kim, Bum-Su started with an old film he found in a flea market while he was studying in New York. It was

probably just out of a simple curiosity and an interest toward the film rather than recognizing a connection to his work at that

time. After he came back to his studio and watched the images in the film, Kim began to experience something unusual. He

experienced an irony of the past that he thought had been swallowed by the present. An absence was claiming its existence as

well. And then he started to encounter a voyeurism of history, fetish and imaginary: isn't visual art supposed to serve all these

kinds of voyeurism after all? The grammar of voyeurism is always suggestive since it is a way to recite absence. It is like a

painting of light: the light goes through a material named film and creates an image.

Maybe it was the transition from the filmic narration to the mechanism of reproduction of images that made it be this way so

naturally. For that reason, in his work, such elements like description and formation, narrative and structure, light and darkness,

objects and images(reflections) are struggling and harmonized by fate. From this background he practices post-genre, and

conceives, so to speak, the principle of consilience. (There is no need to understand the principle of consilience in terms of

macro discourse. It works as micro discourse as well. Furthermore, with the support of micro discourse, it should be

understood as a practical tool for the deconstruction of the frame of macro discourse.)

As a matter of fact, film images are the result of the connection between segmented moments. Therefore, in a film a series of

similar looking instant images get recorded, and from that point, patterned images become possible. And there the artist can

transform the filmic narration into pure visual information through a process of extracting such patterned images to a formative

element. By doing so, the work of the artist appears as an outcome of genuine plastic arts in its external appearances but at the

same time falls on the fence between plastic arts and filmic narrative. In other words, he accomplishes the feat of staying at the

border, a virtue of fine art.

Nevertheless, the accomplishment doesn't imply that the artist has executed abnormal irregularity. Wouldn't images, objects

or forms that imply narrative hold the same grammar as that of plastic arts? Therefore, it seems as though the artist's work

expands the sphere of authentic expression in plastic arts and takes along its physiology supplely rather than becoming an

example of a radical case that questions the pure possibility of narrative without passing through any material agency-therefore,

free from suspicion of fetish. When looking into the production process, at first he makes a box shaped structure or a three

dimensional structure with panels that is made of clear acrylic flat boards. In addition to that, he puts fragmented films on the

surfaces. After a desired pattern of shape is produced through this, as a final process, he finishes the surface with resin. Here

the resin works as glue for the fragmented films, at the same time it strengthens the clarity of the films. In its modality, one can

see that the same patterns or colors are reconstructed together in order to get some particular patterns that the artist intends;

therefore, by doing so, his works gain the patterns with various types of colored lines. In other words, although the film itself

implicates a narrative, when it is used as a work of plastic arts the narrative gets transformed into a genuine structure and a

formative element. Most of these panels and boxes are fitted with lighting and finished as a form of light box. Sometimes such a

finished structure unit is presented as an individual art work, but most of the time these units are reconstructed as a sort of

organic form and are installed on a wall or in a space or onto a ceiling.

With this- such an organic work having all these aspects of two dimension and three dimension, painting and sculpture,

structure and pattern- objects and installation become possible. Plus the lighting in the works creates more meditative and

illusory effects.

Patterns and Ornaments, Objects Impregnated by Lights and Darkness

Kho, Chung-Hwan(Art Critic)

The theme of this exhibition is love. The films used for the structures are , , ,and . Except the all are movies about love. Since the film is used as a material rather than as contents,the narratives might not be so important. However, the artist seems to be concerned about the possibilities from the narratives

of the films. For that, he tries to find a way to realize the filmic narratives with his formative grammar. And in this process, he

discovers room for imagination but his imagination later faces a technical restriction for limited possibilities about forms. In this

way, we can observe how a narrative develops a series of different narratives when a will of narrative and a will of forms

confront: a narrative calls another narrative, and then creates a series of new narratives, and each new narrative does not get

subordinate to the first narrative. Here we may be able to see what Jacque Derrida said in his Dissemination, one meaning only

has a meaning as a chance to call another meaning, and this meaning that is called by the first meaning does not share the

original meaning.

Hidden Emotion(To search for a hidden or latent emotion). This is a major premise that controls the whole span of Kims

work. He makes most of his works under this premise or objectifies his latent or hidden emotions through this. Such a series of

works tend to change its appearances little by little each time under the given situations. In its forms, it reminds of atypical

organic mass or a cumulous cloud, a form of nuclear fusion or even a spectacle moment of the big bang with its overlapping

circles in various sizes. The artist says that this time he was watching the famous compilation of kiss scenes from while working on this work. He tried to imagine the scene where the main character, Toto, watched the kiss scenecompilation at the burned theatre as he reviewed his own childhood. As you probably well know, is a movieabout a film that suggested types of metafilm, duplex film and framed film. The real theme of this movie is about the aura of film

that we can only dream of through the virtual reality film itself creates. The artist attached lighting to this work and used a fade-

in and a fade-out technique. And with that technique, he tries to encourage the audience to experience an aura, a fantasy, a

dream in this work.

Contact. It is a work about a Korean movie, , which is about a man and a woman who had many chances to meeteach other in person but could not in the end. The contact that this movie implies is that of both on-line and off-line worlds. It

suggests a new way of romance involving contact through the internet, and depicts the emptiness of modern experience where

people cannot contact (love) truly. Here the artist imagined the couple thinking how much they would have wanted to contact

each other, and made an assumption that the two finally realized contact. What he encapsulated in his work is a dramatic climax

where the two were running toward each other to hug after confirming each other's existence. However, the outcome of the

work reminds of a form of animation. The heroine and hero of the movie are depicted as some sort of running animal character

such as a dog: their feet are like tires of an automobile and there is a trace of wind when they run. Indeed, a cartoonish character

might be much more appropriate for expressing a climax than a live actor would. A cartoon makes the reality become more

vivid, full of life, more realistic and more dramatic. In this way, by using animated characters from his childhood the artist depicts

the dramatic moments of love and invites the audience to come to the emotive scene.

Love (100 kinds of love). This work consists of seventy panels represents a heart presented together as a whole. In the

beginning the artist planned to make 100 of them, however, the number is not so important here. In this mosaic style work, each

panel has a LED light that makes a heart shape as a whole. This way, the artist tries to maximize the lighting effect and enables

an alternate experience for a fantasy about love. Comparing to other works, the theme of love is relatively more engrained in this

work. It depicts various types of love represented in film such as sincere love, or forgotten and faded love, and after that he asks

the real meanings of the love. Here a love story is treated as a story of life, in other words, a story of existentialism: in the love

spectrum, the reflections of joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of life are represented in their entirety. For instance, for the

expression of a fading love the artist used the characteristic of a film itself to depict emotions: film is very fragile, and especially

vulnerable to moisture. In this work, the artist used such emotions relating to the nature of a film that it gets partially faded when

it is exposed a long period of time. This does not mean that there is a problem with the durability of Kims work.

Beyond Description. In this work, the artist connotes some kind of absolute and internal experiences that cannot be translated

in any word or language. By using the regional specificity of a basement where the work is installed, the space is filled with lights

reflecting inner beauty and contemplation while giving off a subtle light in the darkness. There the objects and the space become

unified and such regional specificity becomes emphasized, which enables the audience to have various emotional experiences

according to each individual's memories, experiences and perspectives. In this way, the work is made with an intention to lead

the audience into sensuous experiences rather than certain meanings. In particular, this work arouses a religious aura, which

makes us to feel as if we are experiencing the light through long vertical stained glass windows in a small church. It creates

such inner, contemplative and religious energies.

In this series of works, various patterns such as a geometrical pattern with grids of different sizes, an organic pattern with

juxtaposed circles or even a more complicated patter with those two overlapping each other are clearly noticeable. With these

regular patterns, sometimes his patterns are variable in form and are expanded to diverse patterns like shapes of a heart, a

flame, a leaf, an X, a cross, a diamond, an arch or a curve. These patterns somehow resemble traditional religious iconography

where centrality and symmetry are strictly applied. It seems as though a radiation of a light, energy expanding from the centre to

the outside infinitely; it might look as thought it actually signifies the sacredness of an absolute existence that cannot be

construed in concrete form. On one hand, these patterns recall mantra, which illustrate the foundation and logic of the universe.

Here such an irony intervenes. The artist's work started from the acquisition of secular materials with narratives in films, but the

outcome of the work evokes the sacred. The geometry of patterns - as we can see divine proportions and geometry have a

profound connection to some sort of sacred state or existence - the clarity of a film, the mysterious light covering the darkness

enable such an aura. With that, the artist's work suggests the possibility of a place where a shadow of art is more recognized

than the artwork itself. As the visual information that we sense in a movie is actually a shadow of the actual thing, what makes

the aura of the artist's work is not the structuralized art of films but rather the shadows behind the works. And such a fascination

pulls us to confront some absent existence that only appears through allusion and remembrance beyond the consciousness of

border between the reality and virtual images. In this way, we can feel the narratives of the films and mise-en-scene throughout

the appreciation of the work that used a movie film as a painting where the constructed patterns on the flat surface stand out, or

a sculpture where the support for the solid look of the film is noticeable.

HiddenEmotion- 45031050cm ,, 2008

HiddenEmotion- Detail

HiddenEmotion-160160120cm,, 2008

HiddenEmotion- Detail

100KindsofLove 33018010cm ,,LED 2008

Contact 61011020cm,, 2008

Contact Detail

Contact- 1103590cm2ea.,, 2008

BeyondDescription , 2008

BeyondDescription Detail

BeyondDescription Detail

BeyondDescription Detail

1965 1991 1998 ,

2008 EmotionalSpace(,)2006 BeyondDescription- ()2006 Expansion(,)2006 BeyondDescription(SculptureSquare,)2004 ThePassions(,)2003 ArtinArchitecture-DARK(,)2001 HiddenEmotions(,)

2008 30 (,)

(,)2007 ()

CuttingEdge-1,ARTCURIAL(HoteDassaut,) I()(,)

2006 , (,)- (,) (,)WelcometoMagicDoor(,,)CuttingEdge(,) sub(,)Esprits(,)Foresight(,)

2005 - (,) (,) (,)

2004 RE-CreativeArtwork(,)LightCollection(,)TravelingWindow(,)Enter-Exit(,)

2003 Body+Space(,)Mindscape(,)-ArtinArchitecture-DARK(,), -, (,)()- (,)

2002 2 - 2002- (,)StreetFurnitures(,)

2001 Esprits(,)1999 TheSmallWork(FederalArt,)

IdeasandImages(,)ThePassionofArt(,)

1998 SelectionfromtheM.F.A.SpecialProject( ,) (,)

1997 AllRodsLeadtoRoam(,) (,)

2006 SculptureSquaresArtistResidency()2005 ()2003 ()

,, DMC R&D,,,CJ, M-city,,.

Kim, Bum-Su

1965 Born in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do, Korea1998 M.F.A. School of Visual Art, New York1991 B.F.A. College of Fine Arts(Sculpture), Hongik UniversityPresent Dongguk University, University of Seoul

Solo Exhibitions2008 Emotional Space (Savina Art Museum, Seoul)2006 Beyond Description- (The National Art studio Goyang, Goyang)2006 Expansion (Total Museum, Seoul)2006 Beyond Description (Sculpture Square, Singapore)2004 The Passions (Gallery Hyundai Window Gallery, Seoul)2003 Art in Architecture OPEN-DARK (Camerata Music Space, Paju) 2001 Hidden Emotions (Sagan Gallery, Seoul)

Selected Group Exhibitions2008 Hwaum Chamber Orchestra 30th Concert (Seoul arts Center, Seoul)

Creative Mind (Savina Art Museum, Seoul)2007 Pocheon Asia Biennale (Pocheon)

Art in philosophy (Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul)Cutting Edge-1, ARTCURIAL (Hote Dassant, Paris)

2006 Science and Art (National Science Museum, Daejeon)Korea-China Sculpture (Amoy City Museum, China)Merzs Room (Seoul Museum of Arts Namseoul Annex, Seoul)Welcome to Magic Door (Nanxiang, Gallery Cais, Seoul)Cutting Edge (Gana Art Center, Seoul)Open Studio sub (The National Art studio Goyang, Goyang)Esprits (Gallery Cube, Seoul)Foresight (Opra Gallery, Seoul)

2005 Goyang International Open Air Sculpture Symposium (Ilsan Culture Sqaure, Goyang)Encore (Jaeju Worldcup Stadium, Seogwipo)Visual Narrative (Savina Art Museum, Seoul)

2004 RE-Creative Artwork (Art Factory, Paju)Light Collection (Gallery Hyundai Plus, Seoul)Traveling Window (Taipei National University of Arts, Taipei)Enter-Exit (Taipei Artist Village, Taipei)

2003 Body+Space (Taipei Artist Village, Taipei) Mindscape (Gallery Hyundai Plus, Seoul)Heyri Festival-Art in Architecture OPEN-DARK (Camerata Music Space, Paju) Perpendicular Desire, Horizontal Desire (Sori Arts Center, Jeonju)Seeing Warter, Feeling Water, Crossing Water (Seoul Museum of Arts, Seoul)

2002 The 2nd Seoul International Media Art Biennale (Seoul Museum of Arts. Seoul) Street Furnitures (Mirim Square, Goyang)

2001 Esprits (Chongro Gallery, Seoul)1999 The Small Works (Federal Art Gallery, New York, NY)

Ideas and Images (Los Angeles Korean Cultural Center, CA)The Passon of Art (Richard Anderson Gallery, New York, NY)

1998 Selection from the M.F.A. Special Project (School of Visual Art Gallery, New York, NY)Open Studio (School Of Visual Art Studio, New York, NY)

1997 All Rods Lead to Roam (School of Visual Art Gallery, New York, NY)Open Studio(School Of Visual Art Studio, New York, NY)

Residency2006 Sculpture Square's Artist Residency (Singapore)2005 The National Art studio Goyang-2nd Period Artist in Residence

(National Museum Of Contemporary Art, Korea)2003 Taipei Artist Village Residence Program (Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation)

CollectionsSavina Art Museum, Samsung Corporation, Sangam DMC Pantech R&D Center, AsanMedical Center, Seoul Museum of Arts, CJ Culture Foundation, Ilsan M-City,Jangseong Sculpture Park, POSCO the #, etc.

110-240 159TEL.02-736-4371FAX.02-736-4372#159,Anguk-dong,Jongno-gu,Seoul,110-240,Koreawww.savinamuseum.com

2008