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Exposition Solo 

Soo Young KIM 

Du 5 au 15 Juillet 2022

A la Galerie ICONOCLASTES 

20 Rue Danielle Casanova Paris II 

2022년 7월 5일부터 15일까지 프랑스 파리 ICONOCLASTES 갤러리에서 김수영 개인전을 열었다. 

니트 특수 의상 (아트웨어), 악세사리, 및 250점의 디지털 이미지가 전시되었다. 

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작가 노트 

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얽히고 설키다. 

'얽히고설키다'라는 우리말 표현은 '일, 관계, 감정 등이 이리저리 복잡하게 되다'라는 뜻이다. 

'얽힘과 설킴'의 결과물인 복잡함은 우리에게 긍정적이기보다는 풀어내야 할 난제, 즉 어려운 문제라는 부정적인 인상을 준다. 이 복잡하고 어려운 부분이 각자의 삶에서 의미하는 바는 무엇일까? 

우리네 삶을 가만히 들여다보면, 얽힘이 없이는 우리는 단 한순간도 살아갈 수 없음을 깨닫게 된다. 이 세상에 태어나면서부터 부모, 친구, 동료, 직장상사, 애인 등 무수하게 얽혀 있는 관계 속에서 살아간다. 관계 속의 얽힘은 또 다른 얽힘을 가져오기도 하며, 이 얽힘은 설키며 더욱 섬세하고 세밀하게 이어지기도 하며, 때로는 예상과는 다르게 갑자기 끊기기도 하며 풀어지기도 하면서 유일무이한 조직, 즉 우리의 모습을 만들어 간다. 

편물이라는 조직도 실과 실의 얽힘이 없이는 만들어질 수 없다. 실의 얽힘을 가능하게 하는 수동 편물기를 통한 조직의 생성은 우연성을 배제할 수 없으며, 예상을 빗나가는 의도하지 않은 우연성이나 돌발성은 실의 얽힘을 더욱 복잡하게 만들기도 하고, 실과의 설킴이 더해 끊겨 버려 구멍을 만들기도 한다. 

나는 이번 작업을 통해 얽힘과 설킴으로 이루어진 나의 삶을 돌아보는 동시에 평범한 재료로 여겨지는 투명 낚시줄의 얽힘에서 나오는 무궁무진한 창조의 가능성을 엿보았다. 

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In the nascent mists of fashion art, at the dawn of the industrial revolution, the term ‘multiplicity’ is symptomatically opposed to the notion of ‘singularity’, just as that of ‘reproducibility’ is set against that of ‘originality’. The fusion of these two contradictory states into a single formula seemed technologically unfeasible, and plainly inconceivable, from a contemporary, tunnel viewpoint.

Through her latest collection, artist  Soo Young Kim tackles this salient theme through both conventional and multimedia artworks, generated simultaneously through NFTs (non-fungible token-linked artworks), and through an astonishing physical range of bespoke fabric samples, hand-spun in myriad detail by the artist herself at her knitting machines.

The digital images themselves, representing never-before seen knitted textures, are on display at Opensea, the pre-eminent global NFT art marketplace. 250 distinct variants arose through an iterative bot, pursuant to the isolation of constituent elements including threads, beads, and backgrounds, that had been pre-drawn on the i-Pad by hand. Each variant is singular and peerless, featuring deeply embedded reproducibility via the generative software, rendering it possible for the maximum number of NFT units to be readied for the project. Monetization occurs strictly within this virtual sphere, where images as such are twinned with NFTs (Non Fungible tokens), and the tokens in turn, paired with the images.

The second pillar of Kim’s creative work takes the form of knitted artworks - composite non-wearable clothes, fabrics and accessories - which are on display within the physical space of Paris’ noted Iconoclastes gallery. Knitted with iridescent elastic and shiny fishing lines, yet studded with multi-coloured beads, these substrata leap out at the viewer, calling on our senses. More than 14 days are needed to craft each item, to attain the goal of reproducibility across multiple media, including photography, video, and descriptive texts.

The blurring of these values and the combining of the opposite stati of ‘original’ and ‘reproduction’ take up their role at the heart of Kim’s creative opus.

As Erwin PANOFSKY points out : “The original and the reproduction are made of two different materials, bound in incessant evolution, and, given the natural reworking of the materials and of their pace of life, one separates from the other, eventually becoming completely incomparable.”*

Given technical developments and the evolution of the spirit, two new formulae have emerged, giving rise to modern and contemporary creations, which play on original singularity and multiple reproducibility, that is multiple singularity, and still, original reproducibility. Today, these novel formulae may closely be linked to the practices of reproduction, appropriation, and copying, and seem to lie at the very core of innovation, as a synonym of originality, and a solution for sustainability in the fashion industry at large.

In our current epoch of ‘The Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’, creative processes, together with our conception of exhibition space, are radically changing, in proportion to these attracting poles: Reproducibility and Originality. In Metaverse, a universal and immersive virtual world, reproduced artworks (including traditional definitions of what can be singular and unique) may be exhibited and appreciated by spectators, without the need to travel to a physical museum or gallery, in a context dwelling outside time and space. In this paradigm, artworks impact the economy directly, morphing into fiscal value, in an emanation fresh from the labour pangs of Cryptocurrency.

*Erwin PANOFSKY, 1930 ; translated from German by Jean-François POIRIER, « Original and Facsimile Reproduction ». In Notebooks of the National Museum

of Modern Art, Autumn 1995, no.53, pp. 45-55.

Martin Loewe