A Needle Woman – Jaoseon, 2023
Performance
Courtesy of Meridiano and Kimsooja Studio.
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Kimsooja made a series of performances responding to the unique space of Meridiano in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, on the occasion of its inauguration. The word “jaoseon” in the title means meridian in Korean. The artist stands as a symbolic needle and a vertical axis inside Meridiano's architecture defining the geometry of light and shadow under celestial bodies.


김수자는 멕시코 푸에르토 에스콘디도의 메리디아노 공간 개관을 맞아, 그 장소의 고유한 건축적 특성에 반응하는 일련의 퍼포먼스를 선보였다. 제목에 사용된 ‘자오선’은 ‘meridian’을 뜻한다. 작가는 건축 내부에서 상징적 바늘이자 수직적 축으로 서서, 천체의 움직임 아래에서 빛과 그림자가 형성하는 기하학을 규정하는 존재로 자리한다.

Making Worlds, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
For more information, click HERE


In occasion of Sydney Modern Project's inauguration, Archive of Mind is now on view at Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia. With the artwork, Kimsooja invites visitors to collect a handful of clay, sit at the large work surface, and empty their minds of distraction; to sink into the experience of forming a ball of clay between the hands, rolling and wrapping it into itself like an infinite Bottari. The process transforms simple, everyday actions into moments of meditation and transcendence. As each sphere is completed, it is added to the table, forming an organic arrangement that holds the imprint of each maker. Archive of mind is accompanied by Unfolding Sphere, a subtle soundscape composed of two sounds: the artist gurgling water and clay balls being pressed, rolled and colliding with one another. At some moments it recalls a distant thunderstorm, at others, a burbling stream.


This presentation of Archive of Mind is supported by a grant from the Australia-Korea Foundation, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Purchase with funds provided by the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation 2018

Archives from 'Sowing into Painting' project, Wanås Konst, Sweden, 2020
Flax oil, flax seeds capsules, flax seeds, linen fiber, yarn balls, woven linen canvas fabric
Courtesy Kimsooja Studio, KEWENIG, Berlin et Wanås Konst, Wanås
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Exploring the conceptual relationship between culture and agriculture, painting and textiles, these objects exemplify harvests from the artist’s flax plantation project in Wanås, Sweden. The flax seed produces both linseed oil used to make oil paint and linen fiber, which is woven into canvases—the two basic materials for painting. The field becomes a life painting, planted into the earth, cultivated, and harvested, threading the idea of painting, agriculture, and textile together. The flax fibers harvested from Sowing into Painting are woven into canvases to produce Meta-Painting. In this new work, Kimsooja conceptualized painting in the form of cyclical painting, or painting before painting, after over forty years of departure from any brushwork on canvas.


문화와 농경, 회화와 직조 사이의 개념적 관계를 탐구하는 이 오브제는, 스웨덴 바노스(Wanås)에 위치한 작가의 아마(flax) 재배 프로젝트에서 나온 결과물이다. 아마의 씨앗은 유화를 만드는 데 사용되는 린시드 오일을 생산하는 동시에, 캔버스를 짜는 데 사용되는 린넨 섬유를 제공한다. 즉, 회화를 구성하는 가장 기본적인 두 재료가 하나의 식물에서 기원하는 것이다. 이 밭은 파종되고, 경작되고, 수확된다는 점에서 하나의 ‘생태적 회화’가 되며, 회화·농경·직조라는 세 개념을 하나의 과정으로 엮어낸다. <씨 뿌려 그리기> 작품을 통해 수확된 아마 섬유는 다시 직조되어 〈메타-페인팅〉이라는 새로운 캔버스로 전환된다. 이 작품에서 김수자는 붓질을 떠난 지 40여 년 만에, 회화를 ‘순환적 회화’ 혹은 ‘회화 이전의 회화’라는 형태로 개념화하며 회화의 근원적 의미를 재사유한다.

Site-specific Project at Wanas Konst, Sweden
Work in Progress with Two Planted Varieties of Flax Seeds (for Flax Seeds Oil and Linen) in Wanås Konst Open Fields
Courtesy of Wanås Konst and Kimsooja Studio
For Wanås Foundation, Sowing Into Painting, Multidimensional Art Project Including Site-specific Installations

Installation view at Palais des ducs d'Aquitaine, For Traversées / Kimsooja, 13 site-specific installations around the city of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
First exhibited in a different configuration at the the Kimsooja, Archive of Mind, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea(MMCA), Seoul, Korea

Installation at Kimsooja: Archive of Mind, Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), Salem, USA

Installation View at Group Exhibition Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, Itally
First exhibited in a different configuration at the the Kimsooja, Archive of Mind, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea(MMCA), Seoul, Korea

마음의 기하학 Archive of Mind
Wooden table, assorted clay
Dimensions variable
2016
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<마음의 기하학>은 작가가 무언가를 ‘만드는 행위’ 자체에 관해 사유한 바를 제시한다. 이 작품은 관객이 직접 작품에 개입하는 참여형 워크숍으로 진행된다. 작가는 캔버스의 기능을 겸하는 19m 길이의 타원형 나무탁자 위에 관객이 찰흙 덩어리를 구형으로 만들어 놓도록 요청한다. 작가는 그의 초기 작업에서 ‘보따리’라는 개념을 물질과 비물질을 감싸는 방법론으로 풀이했던 데에서 영감을 얻어 찰흙 구를 만드는 작업을 구상했다. 구를 만들기위해 손으로 찰흙을 감싸며 굴리는 순환적인 행위는 관객이 자신의 마음 상태를 물질로, 물질을 다시 무(無)로 전환하도록 만드는데, 이 과정에서 자신의 두 손바닥에 가하는 균형적인 힘 사이의 양극성을 체험하도록 한다. 이 작품과 함께 전시되는 사운드 퍼포먼스 신작 <구의 궤적>은 찰흙 구 표면의 기하학적 구조를 소리의 실타래로 풀어내고, 탁자 위에 흩어져 있는 구들과 조응하며 우주적 조형성을 드러낸다.
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Archive of Mind offers the artist’s reflections on the canonical problem of the act of making and will transform with audience participation throughout the exhibition period. Expanding on the artist’s concept of “Bottari” as a method of wrapping, this participatory workshop invites the audience to roll a lump of clay into spherical forms on a 19 meter long wooden table, which doubles as a canvas. The cyclical act introduces a polarity between symmetrical forces of the participants’ palms that
transpose their state of mind into matter and matter into void. A new sound performance piece titled, Unfolding Sphere, presents an acoustic counterpart to the rhythmic constellation of the clay spheres.

Duraclear Photographic Print in Lightbox
103.6 x 154.4 x 8.8 cm
Edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs

Duraclear Photographic Print in Lightbox
119 x 89 x 16 cm
Edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs

Digital Flex Print
203.2 x 116.8 cm
Edition of 6 plus 2 artist's proofs

Performative Sculpture, Used Korean Bedcovers, Mannequin
Courtesy Kimsooja Studio and Kewenig Galerie, Berlin

Giclée Inkjet Print
97.5 x 64 cm
Edition of 120 plus 20 AP

Performance Video
Single Channel, 25:00 loop, Silent, HD
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof

Duraclear Photographic print in Lightbox
125 x 188 x 16 cm
Edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs

Lofoten House
Filmed at Laukvik, Lofoten Islands, Norway

Duraclear Photographic Print in Lightbox
Large: 185 x 138 cm
Small: 89 x 119 cm
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof

Performance Video
Single Channel, 9:17 loop, Silent, HD
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof

Giclée Inkjet Print
62.2 x 86.4 cm

Giclée Inkjet Print
61.6 x 86.4 cm
Edition of 25 plus 4 artist's proofs

Giclée Inkjet Print
62.2 x 86.4 cm
Edition of 25 plus 4 artist's proofs

Giclée Inkjet Print
62.2 x 86.4 cm
Edition of 25 plus 4 artist's proofs

Friday, March 11, 2005, 2-3pm, Times Square, New York, USA
Planned in conjunction with The 59th Minute, a Creative Time project.
Photos by Alon Koppel and Charlie Samuels.
Commissioned and presented by Creative Time
Courtesy of Creative Time and Kimsooja Studio.

Installation at The 51st Venice Biennale: Always a Little Further, Arsenale, Venice, Italy

A Needle Woman – Patan, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, N 'Djamena, Sanaa, Jerusalem, 2005
Performance Video
6 Channel, 10:40 loop, Silent
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof

A Needle Woman – Patan, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, N 'Djamena, Sanaa, Jerusalem, 2005
Performance Video
6 Channel, 10:40 loop, Silent
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof

A Needle Woman – Patan, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, N 'Djamena, Sanaa, Jerusalem, 2005
Performance Video
6 Channel, 10:40 loop, Silent
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof

A Needle Woman – Patan, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, N 'Djamena, Sanaa, Jerusalem, 2005
Performance Video
6 Channel, 10:40 loop, Silent
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof

A Needle Woman – Patan, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, N 'Djamena, Sanaa, Jerusalem, 2005
Performance Video
6 Channel, 10:40 loop, Silent
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof

A Needle Woman – Patan, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, N 'Djamena, Sanaa, Jerusalem, 2005
Performance Video
6 Channel, 10:40 loop, Silent
Edition of 6 plus 1 artist's proof