[Gallery Walk] Embracing an Era of Anxiety and Oppression with Light, Line, and Sound

Seongbuk-gu Art Museum Special Exhibition 'Kim Dohee·Bitseonsori'
43m Structure, Layered Charcoal Drawings on Wall Attract Attention

An exhibition by artist Kim Dohee, who has conveyed messages of social critique through ontological records and awareness of human existence amid the rapidly changing pace of reality, is being held.

Kim Dohee_Bitseonsori, 2024, Charcoal, Sound Drawing Installation ⓒChoi Cheollim [Photo by Seongbuk Art Museum]

Seongbuk Cultural Foundation’s Seongbuk Art Museum announced on the 12th that the exhibition "Kim Dohee·Bichseonsori" will be held at Seongbuk Art Creation Center until August 3.

The exhibition is part of the foundation’s support for promising young contemporary artists based locally who have the potential to leap onto the global stage, and this exhibition is planned as the first attempt in that effort.

The artist presents a total of nine works, including the new large-scale wall sound drawing "Bichseonsori" (2024), which impresses with its overwhelming scale and unique form, as well as past works that reveal the essence and context of the new work: "Sontopsansu" (2004), a drawing scratched with fingernails on sandpaper; performance documentation videos "Like the Feather of a Waterbird" (2020) and "Howling" (2015); and an audience participatory piece.

The highlight of the exhibition is undoubtedly the new work "Bichseonsori" (2024), which stretches 43 meters. From the first floor to the spiral structure’s secluded space on the second floor of the exhibition hall, the approximately 43-meter-long wall and the layered charcoal drawings on it deliver a powerful shock and deep emotion. The peculiar sound that seems to pierce through the entire body and the sum of lines evoking an incredible amount of labor, "Bichseonsori" (2024), is a work that "translates sound into drawing" and is "completed together with sound."

The artist expressed the sound heard by rubbing the exhibition wall with the "self-body" of his palm through overlapping lines. He describes this as "a work visualizing movements responsive to tactile sound." In fact, "sound and vibration" and "action and labor" have been key values the artist has expressed and practiced since the past, and these are fully embodied in this new work.

Kim Dohee_Bitseonsori, 2024, Charcoal, Sound Drawing Installation 2 ⓒChoi Cheollim [Photo by Seongbuk Art Museum]

The consistent continuation of past attempts and artistic philosophy into the present and their ongoing connection into the future is a capability shown by "great" artists. In this regard, the work drawing attention alongside the new piece is "Sontopsansu" (2004), which the artist created 20 years ago using sandpaper instead of canvas.

As the title suggests, this work was created by scratching a landscape onto sandpaper with fingernails, replicating Gyeomjae Jeong Seon’s "Manpokdongdo (萬瀑洞圖)" on rough sandpaper. Created during graduate school practical classes in 2004, it reveals the eccentric genius of an artist yearning for the "real" during a time confined to limited formal frameworks. This is an expression of belief that "true art" is possible based on one’s own body, emotions, thoughts, and experiences rather than mechanical imitation of Western art discourse.

In a modern society where everything is too fast, uniform, competitive, and oppressive itself, the artist is undoubtedly a member of this society. He clearly recognized his own "exhausted" state more than anyone else and requested a quiet space and time alone from the curator for recovery.

Before this exhibition, the artist used Seongbuk Art Creation Center as a kind of "Art Residency," his studio, coming and going for about 20 days to produce the new sound drawing installation "Bichseonsori" (2024). This is a product and gift of deep silence and immersive time. Visitors can fully experience a dialectical site of self-recovery through a dark period of seclusion.

Kim Dohee_Nail Landscape, 2004, Nail drawing on sandpaper ⓒChoi Cheollim. [Photo courtesy of Seongbuk District Art Museum]

Born in 1979, Kim Dohee gained early attention by being selected for the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s "Young Search 2014," which supports emerging artists with experimental and original approaches. Through somewhat radical and impressive artistic activities, the artist continues the lineage of Korean contemporary art, working across various media including installation, performance, painting, photography, video, and publishing.

In Seongbuk, he was selected in 2016 for the first "Seongbuk N Artist Open Call." In 2023, he was recommended as part of the Seongbuk Art Museum’s planning and selected for the "Public Art Museum Recommended Artist?Expert Matching Support Project (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, hereafter Criticism Support Project)," receiving critical support. This planned exhibition is a continuous support linked to the 2023 Criticism Support Project.

An "Artist Talk" related to the exhibition will also be held on the 23rd.

The museum is closed every Sunday and Monday, and admission to the exhibition is free.