Kimsooja

This is a Korean name; the family name is Kim.

Kimsooja
A Laundry Woman video still; Yamuna River, India, 2000
Born	Gim Su-ja 1957 (age 66–67) Daegu, South Korea
Nationality	Korean
Education	Hongik University
Known for	Conceptual and performance art
Korean name
Hangul	김수자
Revised Romanization	Gim Suja
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Suja

Kimsooja (Hangul: 김수자; born 1957) is a South Korean multi-disciplinary conceptual artist based in New York, Paris and Seoul. She represented Korea for the 24th São Paulo Biennale in 1998 and the 55th Venice Biennale Korean Pavilion in 2013, and participated in more than 30 international biennials and triennials. She has had solo exhibitions at MoMA PS1; Cristal Palace, Reina Sofia; the Vancouver Art Gallery; Kunsthalle Wien; Kunsthalle Bern; Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein; Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, UK; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; Padliglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan; Museum of Contemporary Art Lyon; Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Musée d’Art Moderne Saint-Étienne; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens; PAC Milan; Daegu Art Museum; ICC Tokyo; CCA Kitakyushu; the Plateau Samsung Museum, Seoul; Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain; Centre Pompidou Metz, France.

Name

After having to pick a domain name for her website, Kimsooja thought about the conceptual implications of combining her name into one word. One word names do not ascribe gender identity, marital status, or cultural identity because there is no separating between the first name and family name. She commemorated this act in a conceptual piece titled A One-Word Name Is An Anarchist’s Name (2003).

Early career

Kimsooja was born in Daegu, South Korea, in 1957. She studied Western painting at the Hongik University in Seoul, and her origin as a painter was a crucial starting point for the development of her art. Kimsooja’s "Sewing" series (1983–1992), her first work with fabric, brought forth an assemblage of fabric forming cruciform structures that synthesized an entangled and knotted vision of the world into a system of horizontals and verticals. Like the Spatialist painter Lucio Fontana who pierced the uni-colored canvas with a sharped-edged dagger, Kimsooja also made art that was no longer a screen of illusion but a three-dimensional structure as she weaved through the surface of the work, piercing holes into it.

Subsequent to a residency at PS1: MOMA in 1992-93, Kimsooja initiated a series of site-specific installations that found their origin in the Korean color spectrum (Obangsaek). She created sculptures inspired from Korean bedcover cloth bundles that are associated in Korean culture with travel and migration, and may also be interpreted in her work as an allusion to restrictions on female activities. These bedcover bundles inspired the title of a number of sculptures and installation works that Kimsooja titled after the Korean word Bottari, that intimates the idea of travels, but also refers to concepts of wrapping, and unfolding.

In 1992, the installation Deductive Objects shown at MoMA PS1, took up an entire brick wall where small torn pieces of used Korean bedcover fabric were inserted by the artist in tiny holes between the bricks. The sculptural elements alongside the wall installation were composed of everyday objects wrapped in Bottari cloth, such as a carrier, a doorframe, a hook, a saw, a spool, a shovel, a clothing rack, or a ladder.

Performance and video work

Kimsooja, To Breathe - Invisible Mirror / Invisible Needle, 2006.

In Sewing into Walking-Kyungju,1994, the artist’s first video performance, Kimsooja is seen a top the valleys of Kwangju, Korea, picking up scattered bedcovers on the valley’s floor and wrapping them into a bundle. A year later the artist returned to the valley for the first Kwangju Biennale in Korea, and scattered clothes made of traditional Korean fabrics on the ground of a forest. This installation, made of 2.5 tons of second-hand clothes and entitled Sewing into Walking- Dedicated to the victims of Kwangju commemorated the victims of the suppression of a democratic protest in Kwangju in 1980.This work established an analogy between the structure of fabric and that of the land which was of particular importance in terms of confirming the three-dimensionality and spatial topology of fabric in the artist’s work as well as establishing her body in performance as a needle that weaves through the fabric of humanity and nature.

A Needle Woman

Video Still of Kimsooja's 1999 performance "A Needle Woman."

Main article: A Needle Woman

In 1999, Kimsooja presented her most iconic work: A Needle Woman, a performance video piece that premiered at CCA Kitakyushu, and further evolved in subsequent showings as a multi-channel video projection. In A Needle Woman the artist is seen her back facing the camera, wearing precisely the same clothes, standing precisely the same way in various metropolises: Tokyo, Shanghai, Delhi, New York, Mexico City, Cairo, Lagos, London, Patan, Nepal (1999–2001); and in a second series of performances: Havana, Cuba; N’Djamena, Chad; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sana’a, Yemen; and Jerusalem (2005). Some locations visited in the work are places of violence, disrepair or unresolved conflict, lending to the needle a metaphoric function as an instrument of healing. Also in A Laundry Woman (2000), a performance video piece shot in India, Kimsooja is seen immobile and standing in front of a river where debris seemingly drift. A Needle Woman and A Laundry Woman exposed the artist’s stances on non-doing and immobility as a form of art practice; lending to the action of immobility the virtue of inverting an audience’s linear perception of space and time. The first version of A Needle Woman, presented the artist laying horizontally on a rock and established nature and spatial orientation as a central subject in her work; already present in her use of the Korean Color spectrum (Obangsaek) in which each color stands for a cardinal direction in Korean tradition.

For A Mirror Woman: The Sun and The Moon, commissioned by the Shiseido Art Foundation in 2008, Kimsooja filmed the sun setting and the moon rising, along the beach of Goa, India. The artist then digitally layered an eclipse in which the footage of the Sun and the Moon were fused together.

In Earth – Water – Fire – Air, a multi-channel video projection that premiered at the 2009 Lanzarote Biennale, Spain, the fusion of basic elements was grasped live by the artist on the Island of Lanzarote in the Canary Island; in Guatemala and Greenland. Here the concept of fusion enhanced the idea of earlier experiments in immobility; always incarnated in the artist’s persistent representation of permanence and impermanence, horizontal and vertical structures, the forward and backward movements of sewing.

Starting in 2010, Kimsooja initiated a 16mm film project entitled Thread Routes. Divided into six chapters, Thread Routes unfolds as an anthropological poem that takes the act of threading as a central subject. It takes place in six different cultural zones around the world. The five preliminary chapters of the series were shot in Peru, Europe, India, China, and North America.

Site-specific works

Kimsooja, To Breathe: Bottari, Solo Exhibition at The Korean Pavilion, Venice, 2013.

Kimsooja, To Breathe – A Mirror Woman, a site-specific installation developed for the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid in 2006, photo Jaeho Chong.

A Lighthouse Woman (2002) was a site-specific installation where Kimsooja used light, color and sound to transform the abandoned lighthouse in Morris Island (Charleston, South Carolina) for the 2002 Spoleto Festival. A Lighthouse Woman inaugurated a series of work the artist created as memorial projects that includes: Sewing Into Walking - Dedicated to the victims of Kwangju,1995; Planted Names, 2002; Mandala: Chant for Auschwitz, 2010; and A Mirror Woman: The Ground of Nowhere, 2003. [47] Also commemorative, Kimsooja’s An Album: Hudson Guild is a video project created in collaboration with the Hudson Guild Senior Center in Chelsea, New York, in 2009.

In To Breathe: Invisible Mirror/ Invisible Needle which premiered at La Fenice, Venice in 2006, Kimsooja screened a nine-minute video projection of a color spectrum that filled the entirety of the theater’s stage. A five-channel audio track entitled The Weaving Factory (2004) accompanied the piece forming a couplet of inhalation and exhalation of the artist’s own breathing that became increasingly less agile as the color spectrum continued its gestation.

In To Breathe – A Mirror Woman, a site-specific installation developed for the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid in 2006, Kimsooja installed a mirror that covered the flooring of the Palacio. The entire cupola of the palace was covered with a translucent film that diffracted daylight. The Palacio was also replete with the sound of the artist’s breathing.

In Lotus: Zone of Zero, a site-specific installation that was first installed at Palais Rameau Lille, Kimsooja hung six rows of concentric circles consisting of 384 temple lanterns in the shape of lotus blossoms from the glass pavilion. Six speakers aligned the circle simultaneously played Gregorian, Tibetan, and Islamic chants which echo throughout the room and unite at the hollow center. According to Kimsooja, this is the realm of "Zero", in which different faiths form a harmonious union that transcends into a space for meditation and contemplation. The many lanterns hung over head were meant to humble the viewer and remind them of their relationship with their community. Kimsooja created Lotus: Zone of Zero in response to the Iraq war; she wanted to create a place where different religions and people of different cultures could live in a state of harmonious coexistence.

Kimsooja represented Korea for the South Korean pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. For the piece entitled To Breathe: Bottari, Kimsooja wrapped the entirety of the national pavilion’s interior with a translucent film that diffracted daylight, showering the internal structure with spectrums of light. Her sound piece The Weaving Factory (2004–2013) also filled the pavilion with the sound of the artist inhaling and exhaling. These aspects of light and sound were further heightened by To Breathe: Blackout (2013), an anechoic chamber where the audience would be cast in complete darkness and devoid of sound except for that of the viewer’s own body. Other notable public commissions include A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir (2014); a monumental 46-foot-tall sculpture by Kimsooja, commissioned and installed for the Cornell Council for the Arts 2014 Biennial on the campus of Cornell University; Mandala: Zone of Zero which premiered at The Project in New York City in 2003, and consisting of the sound of Tibetan, Gregorian and Islamic chants animating a large target-shaped jukebox; and Lotus Zone of Zero, a public commission sculpture first installed at Palais Rameau, Lille, where Kimsooja created a hollow mandala-shaped circle with 384 lotus lanterns hanging from the glass pavilion.

Exhibitions (selection)

• Kimsooja, To Breathe, Centre Pompidou Metz, 2016
• Kimsooja, Thread Routes, Guggenheim Bilbao, 2015.
• Kimsooja, To Breathe: Bottari, The Korean Pavilion, 55th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2013.
• Kimsooja / Unfolding, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, 2013.
• Kimsooja, Mumbai: A Laundry Field, Feldkirch Church, Co-organized by Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Lichtenstein, 2010.
• A Needle Woman - Paris, Hôtel De Ville Paris, Commissioned by Nuit Blanche, Paris, France, 2009.
• Black Box: Kimsooja, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA, 2008.
• Kimsooja, To Breathe - A Mirror Woman, a site-specific installation at the Crystal Palace, commissioned by Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain, 2006.
• Kimsooja, To Breathe / Respirare, A Site-Specific Installation at La Fenice Theater, in conjunction with a joint Solo Exhibition at Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice, Italy, 2006.
• Kimsooja, To Breathe: Invisible Mirror / Invisible Needle, Theatre Chatelet, Commissioned by Nuit Blanche Paris, France, 2006.
• Kimsooja, A Wind Woman, The Project, New York, USA, 2006.
• Kimsooja, A Wind Woman, Peter Blum Gallery, Chelsea New York, 2006.
• Kimsooja, Conditions of Humanity, traveling solo show, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, Germany; Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, PAC, Milan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon 2004.
• Kimsooja, A Laundry Woman, Kunsthalle, Wien, Austria, 2002.
• Kimsooja, A Needle Woman, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center / MOMA, New York, USA, 2001.
• Kimsooja, A Needle Woman, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland 2001.
• Kimsooja, Bottari, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany, 2001.
• Kimsooja, A Needle Woman, ICC, Tokyo, Japan, 2000.

Awards, fellowships and commissions (selection)

• Ho-Am prize for the Arts, Ho-Am foundation, Korea, 2016
• A Needle Woman: Galaxy was a Memory, Earth is a Souvenir, commissioned by CCA on the occasion of first Cornell University Biennale Ithaca, New York, 2014.
• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 2014.
• Grant recipient, New York State Council on the Arts, New York An Album: Hudson Guild commissioned by More Art, New York, 2009.
• A Needle Woman - Paris, Hôtel De Ville Paris, Commissioned by Nuit Blanche, Paris, France, 2009.
• Grant recipient, New York State Council of the Arts, An Album: Hudson Guild, commissioned by More Art, New York, 2009.
• Musee d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, 2008.
• Kimsooja, To Breathe: Invisible Mirror / Invisible Needle, Theatre Chatelet, Commissioned by Nuit Blanche Paris, France, 2006.
• Korea Culture & Arts Foundation Grant, Seoul, for Always a Little Further, the 51st Venice Biennale, Arsenale, Venice, 2005.
• Anonymous Was A Woman Foundation Award, New York, Artist of the American Art Award, Whitney Museum of America, Sponsored by Cartier Co., New York, 2002.
• Korea Culture & Arts Foundation Award, Seoul, Award for the Best Show of the Year 2000, for the solo exhibition A Needle Woman – A Woman Who Weaves the World at Rodin Gallery, Samsung Art Museum, Seoul, 2001.
• Paradise Culture Foundation Award, Seoul, 2000.
• Residency Award, World Views – at World Trade Center, New York, awarded by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York, 1998.
• Artist in Residence, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, 1992–93.
• The 11th Suk-Nam Fine Art Award, Seoul, 1992.
• Song-Un culture Foundation Award, Seoul, 1991.

Biennials and triennials (selection)

• Inhabiting the World - Busan Biennale 2014, Busan, South Korea 2014.
• Intimate Cosmologies: The Aesthetics of Scale in an Age of Nanotechnology. The 1st Cornell University Biennale Ithaca, New York, 2014.
• The International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, 2014.
• The 55th Venice Biennale, Korean Pavilion, 2013.
• ROUNDTABLE, The 9th Kwangju Biennale, Korea, 2012.
• Beyond Mediations, Poznan Biennale, Zamek Art Center, Poznan, Poland, 2010.
• Dress Codes, The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, International Center for Photography, New York, USA, 2009.
• Against Exclusion - The 3rd Moscow Biennale, The Garage, Moscow, Russia, 2009.
• The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, 2009.
• Always a Little Further, The 51st Venice Biennale, Arsenale, Venice, Italy, 2005.
• The 10th Biennial of Moving Images, Geneva, Switzerland, 2003.
• Ideal City - Solares, the 2nd Valencia Biennale, Valencia, 2003.
• 71st Whitney Biennial, Central Park, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA, 2002.
• The 1st Busan Biennale, Metropolitan Museum, Busan, Korea, 2002.
• Sharing Exotism, The 5th Biennale de Lyon, Halle Tony Garnier, Lyon, France, 2000.
• D'APERTutto, The 48th Venice Biennale, Venice, 1999.
• The 24th São Paulo Biennial, São Paulo, Brazil, 1998.
• Manifesta 1, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1996.
• The 1st KwangJu Biennale, KwangJu, Korea, 1995.

Further reading

• Laeticia Mello, The Pilgrimage of our Own Existence, Arte Al Limite, Published by Arte Al Limite March 2012, pp. 30–38
• Seungduk Kim, Centripedal Acceleration, Kimsooja To Breathe: Bottari, les presses du reel, 2013.
• Suh Young – Hee: Contemplating a system of horizontals and Verticals, in Kimsooja: Unfolding, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2013.
• Cities on the Move, exhibition catalogue, Art-Worlds in Dialogue: From Gauguin to the Global Present, Museum Ludwig Cologne, 2000.
• Steven Henry Madoff, Gnomon of Place, Gnomon of foreignness, Host and Guest, Catalogue for group exhibition at Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Published by Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2013.
• Ingrid Commandeur, Kimsooja: Black holes, Meditative Vanishings and Nature as a Mirror of the Universe, in Windflower, Perceptions of Nature, NAI and Kroller-Muller Museum, 2012.
• Peter Blum Gallery, http://peterblumgallery.com/exhibitions/2006/kimsooja-a-wind-woman/press-release.
• Antonio Geusa, Calm Chaos: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Permm Museum, Russia, 2012.
• David Morgan, Kimsooja and the Art of Place, in Kimsooja Unfolding, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2014.
• Biography, Kimsooja To Breather Bottari, les presses du reel 2013.
• Ricky D’ambrose, Kim Sooja: To Breathe: Invisible Mirror / Invisible Needle, les presses du reel, 2013.
• Doris Van Drathen, Standing at the Point Zero, Catalogue of Kimsooja A Mirror Woman: The Sun & The Moon, Foundation d’Entreprise Hermes, 2008, pp. 30–35.
• Anita Hackethal, http://www.designboom.com/art/kimsooja-korean-pavilion-at-the-venice-art-biennale/)
• Cornell Council for the Arts, http://cca.cornell.edu/?p=galaxy-was-a-memory-earth-is-a-souvenir
• Kimsooja: Ways Of Being, A conversation between Daina Augaitis and Kimsooja, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2013

External links

• Official website