Kieun Kim
USA
Revealuxion is a version of new media art composed of the shapes and mechanisms inspired by cocoons and marionettes. The title came from a combination of Reveal and Lux. I combined them to reveal myself through the intensity of illumination and body movements.
I view myself as a young butterfly, through the reflection of chrysalis as a representation of my alter ego, I express suffering and patience that is embedded in my artwork. A butterfly naturally struggles for its independence and a marionette is controlled by human fingers. However, I voluntarily position myself in a chrysalis and use my fingers to control my own movements coming out of the small hole.
Initially, Revealuxion was an experimental garment for performance, which used LED lights connected to brainwaves called MindFlex as a mental representation and finger movements as a physical representation. The video symbolizes a dynamic hole presenting a struggled butterfly in the chrysalis. I integrated all my documentary videos into the kaleidoscope effects.
To extend journey of imagination, I installed exhibitions of a video projector with white threads and wooden mannequin hands in the various art galleries.
As I express an intimate part of myself, I feel a huge amount of empathy and sympathy for myself. I meet the healing moment and this process be my extension of myself.
Revealuxion (2016)
1. What’s your background?
My degree was the Fine Arts in Art Education in the Kyung Hee University, South Korea. I was able to study various art methods and knowledge such as painting, sculpture, printmaking, and design. The learning at that time became the basis for expanding my art fields until now.
After graduation, I have worked as a visual designer about 5 years and applied to the Parsons Fine Arts in Design and Technology, New York in the United States for my new dream and advanced knowledge in 2013.
I was interested in and focused on creating artworks related to multimedia installations, interactive art, physical computing, and performance.
2. What does your work aim to say?
As an artist, I am always concerned with the statement “Be yourself”. I fear I can lose my ontological integrity and can be controlled by other people, advanced technology, and alter egos.
Nevertheless, I try to represent my true-self through my artworks and performances shared with audiences.
I would say that I exist and that I am here. And if I extend from myself, it is like seeing pictures of an alter ego through a mirror. By expressing an intimate part of myself in this way, I am able to feel a huge amount of empathy and sympathy for my own self. Throughout this process, I experience moments of healing.
3. How does your work comment on current social or political issues?
When it comes to contemporary art, I have a lack of knowledge and find it difficult to feel anything; but I solely know that it provides a sensational story. I used to be pretty shocked by the dark side of art. Artists describe all too often the ugliness of life. As time goes by, artists have tried to make more and more unusual concepts and eventually it seems like the methods of contemporary art exert controversial effects and impressions. For instance, the video installation Play Dead: Real time by Douglas Gordon (2003) draws a process of death and shadow of life. I think that it is a cruelty of humans to record the death. I have soaked in a sense of isolation and loneliness from the video. Moreover, other contemporary works also make me feel uncomfortable with their exaggerated materials and concepts.
Why do humans focus on and reveal extremely pessimistic insights? Can we discover an optimistic view from the environments? I wish that humans, especially we as designers and artists, could express and speak out more positive aspects of our life.
Since I started school at Parsons and learned about new technology and arts in the 21st century, I have often been astonished by materials that people think and attempt to build up for customers including children. Recently, I saw a lot of mind control games or violent games. To some degree, I do not feel anything anymore. My life is becoming rapidly changeable by advanced technical society and is losing a sense of human feeling. Through my recent experience, I realized that we, as humans, naturally have percolated all parts of our accustomed surroundings. This process makes me afraid. As a result, I sense conflict and confusion between digital and physical worlds and I am eager to run away from an insane environment.
Nevertheless, I propose that personal touch/sharing via technology with an aesthetic approach will impact people's lives positively. I intend to convey a personal message about the vulnerable human connection in modern society. I hope that the aesthetic humanistic approach can change the direction of 21st design paradigm in a positive way.
4. Who are your biggest influences?
I believe that my parents have been the biggest influence on me as I have grown up in South Korea. My father was a poet, a high school teacher, and a creator for the theater stage. My mother was a writer and an elementary school teacher. When I was young, my parents had used to create and install the large scale of unique shapes mostly using wires, traditional Korean papers called "Hanji", and light bulbs on the stage with sounds. They have always been the greatest artists and the smartest producers in the world in my mind.
Other than that, I was also inspired by their emotional and lyrical, poetic life, listening Mozart's classical music and feeling nature.
I am very thankful to God to be born as their child.
5. How has your art evolved over the years?
Through depths of the memory, the experience, and the human relationship, I was able to show stories and images to express my inner self more truthfully and more honestly.
In addition, the size and scalability of the installation made it possible to deliver my concept more closely and interact more deeply with the audience.
6. What does art mean to you?
It is the truest way to record my own history and make myself the most honest and mature through my experiences and memories, and it is the most significant personal strength and essential element in my life.
7. What’s the most valuable piece of art to you?
The artwork, following the light in the darkness, coexisting good and evil, not compromising with the world, at the end, sublimating deep inside into beauty of aesthetic is the most valuable to me.
8. What’s next for you in the future?
I hope I could get more opportunities to interact with audiences in the public space. Moreover, I will challenge myself how to provide the positive energy and where to discover the meaningful way for the human connection.
Revealuxion (2019)
