Aesthetic Satire and The Humor of Desire_curated by Sung Mi HONG
Kim highlights the human desire in the modern society. Although desire is a basic human inclination, Kim takes a profound interest in the substance of desire that turns into a greedy in the modern society and its illusion. This is what Kim is supposed to reveal his own humorous interpretation as visual images about the essence of desire as saying in the exhibition called Esthetic Satire and The Humor of Desire.
His work starts from throwing a following fundamental questions about himself: “what do I live for?” Kim traces his own consciousness and desires to answer such question; he depicts them with focusing on human bodies. His interest in basic human inclination is linked to the 'body' of human, which is the most fundamental part of human nature.
He objectifies the human body and expresses its substance in brilliant colors and in tattoo paintings. Its substance exists as a surreal virtual reality. Indeed, the human bodies appeared in his artworks are a means of 3D avatars that Kim created.
His tattoo work acquires universality and international power by provoking one of the most basic parts of human desire through the use of famous brand logos such as Starbucks, which has become a symbol of the United States.
His work, which lies on the border line between photography and painting, by printing on photo papers using 3D techniques, provides us with the opportunity to look back on the bloated human desire in our lives. In this exhibition, Esthetic Satire and Humor of Desire, we expect that Kim's expression of 'desire' he demonstrates can be interpreted in a variety of ways beyond the local limits.
