Deadline for applications is Tuesday 18 February to attend our free art-writing course, in collaboration with Bergen Kunsthall and Office for Contemporary Art Norway.
The performance artist mines his personal history to present a new body of work that draws parallels between religious worship and BDSM cultures. We are surrounded by works at different stages of completion, including clay moulds for an anal dildo and wooden window frames with gothic tracery backed by a colourful lenticular print depicting crowns of thorns. Courtesy: the artist and Various Small Fires, Seoul. Titled O Come to the Altar , the work is covered by a latex sheet that is pulled taut then slackened by the alternating rhythm of a vacuum, mimicking erotic asphyxiation.
Originally trained in metalsmithing and jewellery in Korea, Kim then moved to London and completed an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art in During the course, seeing his frustration with metalwork, his tutor Denise de Cordova suggested that he also explore performance.
In this way, the creation of objects becomes more performative and, in a sense, the entirety of the work represents the body in one form or another β whether as steel bars or stone-like structures, especially like those used in religious buildings. Resembling a wrought-iron window grille, the work has a central curved aperture through which emerges a pair of silicone hands clasped tightly around green rosary beads.
Kim is letting the objects β their forms and surfaces β speak to notions of power and subversion. Dew Kim, Got the Whole World in the Hands detail , , mixed media with wood, metal and silicone casting.
