9. Imaginary internal worlds
What could have been, and what could be.
suggested reading method
To best savour this artwork, please take a moment to eliminate distractions. Consider minimizing all other windows on your computer; putting other devices (phone, tv etc) aside; taking a deep breath, to the full extent of your lung capacity; and focusing solely on the “artwork” section.
Once you’ve processed that to your satisfaction, the rest of the post is optional reading, provided only to share my own impressions and reasons for choosing this piece.
artwork
Posted on Instagram by KangHee Kim on March 26, 2020.
interpretation
KangHee Kim’s photography captivated me from the jump.
I’m not sure when I started following her Instagram, but I found it magical how Kim’s dreamy landscapes are seamlessly Photoshopped onto domestic scenery, above traffic lights, or into the crook of a tree branch. Somehow the central conceit of her work, blending one image into another, never gets old. Her colour palettes and compositions are minimalist, yet the shapes are a little off-kilter and make you look twice.
I won’t dwell on the obvious parallels to dreaming of travel in lockdown, since media coverage of Kim has already belaboured that point. Now, I’m more interested in the fact that Kim has made so many of these images, drawing from and mixing together a seemingly limitless stock of photos. For example, ten months after this piece was posted, Kim posted a remix of this base image with a blue sky instead. Rather than judging this as lazy or derivative, I believe interchangeability lends this form extra depth. These works suggest the imagination continues iterating on itself.
A sky can fit inside a building, or in the shadow of an overhang, or on a billboard just the same. I take this to signify how our thoughts and ideas can shrink or stretch to fit any given space. Similarly, we owe it to ourselves to keep stretching and changing – in so doing, reimagining what is possible.
context
KangHee Kim (1991 - ) is a Korean artist based in New York. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and has since made her mark on the art world in solo and group exhibitions, and in press coverage including Time, Forbes and i-D. These articles often mention her art as a form of escapism, given that visa restrictions prevented her from leaving the U.S. even before Covid struck.
Kim often updates her Instagram with new pieces, and has a loyal following of nearly 500,000.
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