Sung Hwan Kim’s sprawling artist-designed show is on view at Van Abbemuseum

Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, is currently showing a solo exhibition of works by South Korean artist Sung Hwan Kim, titled Protected by roof and right-hand muscles. The show is on view from December 2, 2023 - May 12, 2024, and has been designed by the artist himself. It is curated by Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide, Exhibition Curator, Van Abbemuseum and Chala Itai Westerman, Assistant Curator, Van Abbemuseum. The duo join STIR, with the support of the artist’s archivist Suin Kwon, for an interview that sheds light on the complex emotions that Kim masterfully expresses within his practice, along with the dreamlike quality that his films possess.

Kim blends installations, performance art, film and music to present narratives that blur the line between the fantastic and the real. There is a sense of magical realism within his film works, where we often see a juxtaposition of the mundane and the bizarre. The threshold between these states, as Kim portrays it, is highly permeable, and reflects in his exhibition design at Van Abbemuseum. Kim has presented either a film or video work in each of the exhibition rooms, which is central to that space. These are complemented by multimedia installation pieces and drawings which the artist uses to extend rooms into one another, thereby subverting the idea of borders between these spaces. From the first to the last room, the moving image works on display are From the commanding heights... (2007), Dog Video (2006), Drawing Video (2008), Yolande’s Room (2004– 23), Hair is a piece of head (2021), By Mary Jo Freshley 프레실리에 의(依)해 (2023), Temper Clay (Night Crazing 01, 02 and 03) (2022) and Her Son Cut to Ribbons 1 and 2 (2017/2018/2023), Love before Bond (2017) and Washing Brain and Corn (2010).

Love before Bond is one of the most compelling works in the artist-designed exhibition. It was created for the 57th Venice Art Biennale in 2017 and explores the angst of American teenagers experiencing racism and marginalisation, as seen through the experiences of the artist's niece, Yoon Jin Kim. As the curatorial duo tell STIR, “The collaboration with his niece is a long-term one in which the artist is interested in her education and upbringing in America as a South Korean woman.” They mention that Kim’s niece makes appearances throughout the artist’s body of work, and can be seen in the moving image works Temper Clay and Washing Brain and Corn.

Sung Hwan Kim actually invokes age-old techniques as a storyteller. – Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide, Exhibition Curator, Van Abbemuseum and Chala Itai Westerman, Assistant Curator, Van Abbemuseum.

Love before Bond, like many films by the Korean artist, builds a complex emotional narrative, with empathy, sadness and even fear sparked by the dreamlike piece. The curatorial duo discuss how he achieves this, telling STIR, “Sung Hwan Kim actually invokes age-old techniques as a storyteller.” They provide examples, saying, “Folk tales, gossip, myths and ghost stories that were used and passed on by word-of-mouth to create fear in a population due to social and political considerations, for instance.”

The liminal quality of Kim’s films is built through layering video footage and techniques such as drawing on top of an actor performing their role. In Protected by roof and right-hand muscles, this is supported by the installations and drawings presented alongside the films, as they come together to create an alternate world within which audiences may enter and engage with his works. As the curator team explains, some imagery recurs throughout Kim’s art, such as mandalas and the colour green. In their words, “This repetitive imagery leads to a harmony in the art exhibition, and perhaps a meditative experience for the visitor.”

‘Protected by roof and right-hand muscles’ is on view at Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands until May 12, 2024.