2021.5.6-5.30 (Closed on Monday)
Kim Jihee

Keep Shining

I did not like Candy that much. She is a cheerful girl that smiles while shedding her tears. She needs to cry when she has to, but her tears were often curled up behind her bright smile and stared at the other person. This early work, which served as a base for Sealed Smile, contained the last page of the Françoise Sagan novel “Hello Sadness.” 13 years have passed trying to put eyeglasses on the face mixed with laughter and tears while spending time in the studio with countless pieces of work.

I felt compassion and sympathized with the loss and solitude hidden behind those glasses, and explored the meaning of finite beings in the cycle of life blooming and falling like flowers. I collected large and small fragments of war, images of myths or desires, and everyday life as inspiration. And while presenting my work about various topics of today, the character changed as well.

What I always wanted to say ultimately during my time with the character was hope for a life that would have any meaning even in the vain moments of life, desire, and death. These glimpses of hope were conveyed on the face of the character that sometimes smiled in spite of everything. Even when filling the glasses with jewels that multiply in beauty as if it is screaming, I did not look negatively at the desire that existed as an extension of hope. It is the fate of a sad human being like the myth of Sisyphus to desire and hope and move forward, but the desire for a better life sometimes felt as beautiful as a shining jewel.
The jewels and consumer goods that fill the white screen, and creatures like flowers and bees were in sharp contrast as objects that are believed to be eternal and beings that have a limited life. That contrast may be pointless, but on the contrary, it was also the preciousness of the moment.

When facing the finite nature of life like the creatures on the screen, the weight an individual feels about life also drifts and scatters away in the infinite layer of time. Perhaps we could lighten the burdened layers of life on our shoulders when we recognize the finiteness of time given to us while we obsess, desire, and hope.
Paradoxically, the finite and pointless nature of life may be able to transcend the deficiency and solitude that flows at the base of life full of desire. While the concepts of carpe diem is in conflict with memento mori, it shares the same context in that remembering death is necessary to understand the preciousness of right now.

This exhibition showcases artwork that is particularly bright. There are many works without braces that have symbolically expressed the social standards and prejudices that are thrown into society like homework every time. These are works that express smiles in a more liberating and hopeful way. I emphasized artistic expression and thematic consciousness by mixing acrylic matiere with painting on paper to add instantaneousness.

The exhibition title KEEP SHINING contains the desire for our moment to shine like a smile, even though we have a lot of weight pulling us down.
It is still a life that shines.

gallery NoW
16, Eonju-ro 152-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Korea
+82 2 725 2930

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