Yoon Ka-lim
Email: yoonkalim@hotmail.com
Education:
2007-2008 Research Development Programme, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, UK
2005-2007 MFA, Sculpture, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, UK
1999-2004 BA of Fine Art/Sculpture & BA of Visual Communication Design,
College of Fine Art, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Residencies & Award:
2010 Funding for Community Art Project, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Republic of Korea
2010 Registered Artist, Soma Drawing Centre(Soma Museum), Seoul, Republic of Korea
2010-2011 Artist in Residence Programme, Geumchoen Art Space, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Republic of Korea (http://www.seoulartspace.or.kr/G02_kumchun/main.asp)
2010 Culture & Art Creating Activity Supporting Programme, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Republic of Korea
2009-2010 Artist in Residence Programme, National Goyang Art Studio, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Republic of Korea (http://www.artstudio.or.kr)
2009 Artist in Residence Programme, The National Workshops for Arts and Crafts, Copenhagen, Denmark (http://www.svkh.dk)
2008 Artist in Residence Programme, Florence Trust Studios, London, UK (http://www.florencetrust.org)
Solo Exhibitions:
2010 <Accumulated Traces>, Gallery Factory, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2009 <Kalim Yoon:Tactile Messages>, Felt, Borgergade 15D, Copenhagen, Denmark
Group Exhibitions:
2011 <Adventure Playground by Kalim Yoon & Jiyoon Oh>, PS. 333 Geumcheon Art Space, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2011 <Moa-invites 2011 >, MoA(Museum of Art), Seoul, Republic of Korea
2010 <Art Share Project curated by art-critic Sangyong Sim>, Dongduk Art Gallery, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2010 <Intro Show>, National Goyang Art Studio, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Republic of Korea
2010 < Residency Parade>, Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, Republic of Korea
2010 < The Hello Show>, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark
2008 <Florence Trust Summer Exhibition>, Florence Trust, London, UK
2008 <It’s not there>, Woburn Research Centre, London, UK
2008 <Salon Winter 08 Show>, Salon Gallery, London, UK
2008 <New interventions in sculpture>, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen,
Denmark
2007 <Degree Show>, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, UK
2006 <Inaugural Show>, Helene Nyborg Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark
2004 <Degree Show>, College of Design, Seoul National University, Seoul,
Republic of Korea
2003 <Degree Show> College of Fine Art, Seoul National University, Seoul,
Republic of Korea
I have always had an interest in the part of my work where I express the overall situation of the space by using few devices that I have. These things are specifically revealed through experiments where I attempt to induce experience that stimulate and renew the sense and movement of the body, the emotion or psychological state that are a recreation of ambiguous topic; which all occur by being confronted with the overall effect of the arrangement of space, color, sound, or materials that can be felt specifically and touched. Especially, the psychological suspense left from the experience of personal and mixed situations and gestures from unfamiliar space are relieved by leaving traces of such suspense through the object made from neutral pieces of materials. These mediators borrow their form from familiar objects such as furniture, but they become ambiguous through slight distortion. At the same time, they become my tools equipped with my intentions, and the essence can be found as I contemplate the duality of the image that is seen among the exploration of defining the subtle differences between reality and imagination.
Transformation of Objects, and the Contact Area of Empathy
Ban E-jung(Art Critic)
The three-dimensional artworks of Yoon Ka-lim (born 1980) between the years 2007 ~ 2010 were mainly made of wood, and they are like speechless minimalist sculptures that are easily explained through a single type of work. It also seems that her works of that period have graceful figures overall. But, if one pays attention to the artist’s note on the art work or really carefully observes her works, then one begins to notice the meaning behind the contact between a body part and the object of the artwork. It seems the object is using contact as a medium in completing the meaning of the work. The following artworks are all in such connection with the meaning and contact such as Tables for Confrontation (2009) which can only be completely understood when the viewer props both elbows on the bottom of the artwork, A Corner for the Cornerned Person (2010) where one can understand the awkward joke through associating the position of a cornered person, and Love Seat (2007) which has a recessed shape of a butt as if designed to seat a couple facing away from each other.
However, participation of audience, commonly seen in works, doesn’t seem to be the premise for these wooden objects imitating furniture and appliances. Although the artist herself can be seen sitting or propping her elbows on the work in the pictures of the catalog, it seems the pictures are just inducing supposition through visually showing the situation of contact between the work and body. Or, the works seemed to be for only very sensitive and few number of people who can easily infer the relationship among the works that resemble furniture and appliances within their daily experiences. For example, Boot and Saddle (2009) is surely not intended for the audience to actually climb up on the two saddles for a direct experience. The saddle that connects the rider’s body to the base of the machine is the axis and part of the bicycle that has the most contact between the body and machine. However, in the artwork, the two saddles are aiming in a complete opposite direction as they are tightly fastened to the cold stainless steel, so the role of the sculpted wooden saddles have been changed to a subject of elegant viewing rather than strengthening the dynamics of the overall artwork. This kind of aesthetic background of the artist was revealed early immediately after Yoon Ka-lim’s graduation. The work, The Chair for Masturbation (2004), has changed a part of the chair, enough to be unnoticed by most people, and the unusual experience made by contact of the body with the chair designed for sitting has become the foundation of the artwork’s idea. Therefore, only a small number of people who can infer the psychological effect created by this physical contact or who’ve had actually experienced it can understand the creative background of the work.
There is also series art work Wildlife Picturesque (2008) which is a reprocessed one of handed down ready-made antiques, Sealed Collection (2007) which is an work of ready-made antique furniture sealed with latex, and series of recreated wooden works of daily objects that didn’t utilize ready-made objects. If one closely observe all these works comprehensively, than it would appear that Yoon Ka-lim is aesthetically following in the footsteps of Marcel Duchamp (1887 ~ 1968). However, the standard of the artists selection in the ready-made objects are considered as the objects of the history that have been handed down through anonymity. The artist is also involved in the anonymity’s hidden history and this fact takes up a large portion of the work. In this sense, this work is on a different path than the rational approach of the past ready-made aesthetics. In addition, while the past ready-mades advocate temporary aspect by blatantly claiming to support anti-aesthetics, part of the page from a worn out antique book Natural History is changed to again leave traces of the artist, and the changed history of the antique book continues on.
As one can observe with the early work Cat Cut (2005), the aspect of temporarily extending the life of the used up knife through formative recycling is following the tradition of Junk Art. The intervention by leaving an added comment of the artist for the ready-made is like the logic of the post-work. That is, it is like post-work in the sense of re-configuring the story which results from the artist’s intervention. The whole picture of Sweet Words (2008) is about editing a new story using randomly chosen sentences from Emily Dickinson’s (1830-1886) poem..
There must be a use for the ready-mades in the work process of Yoon Ka-lim, but the ready-mades existence in her artworks are powerless. Thus, there is a subject within her artworks and yet it’s non-existent. The absence of the subject is continuously transforming the storytelling dependent on the memory (experience of the person). The purpose becomes limited or the understanding method of the transformed object becomes limited to the small number of people who are able to closely empathize with the changed object. In this light the chronological list of the objects in Yoon Ka-lim’s works strengthens the solidarity among members with sensitive understanding.
