In October 2022 we will welcome HOFA resident artist Ilhwa Kim for her latest annual solo show titled 'Real Life Architecture'.
South Korean mixed media artist Ilhwa Kim, will bring to London a brand new selection of artworks created in the last 2 and a half years. ‘Real Life Architecture’ is a collaborative curatorial project which will centre around the artist’s philosophy and purpose for creating.
This latest exhibition will feature more than 20 large panel artworks. Pieces that explore a liminal space between human perception of existence and the true state of reality, a body of abstract artworks representing true life without the limitations of senses.
Kim's abstract works are impactful artworks composed of thousands of ‘Hanji’ paper seeds whose inherent dynamism creates works of art that shift between painting and sculpture, delivering art as a new experience of discovery, dynamism and intrigue.
'My seed works contain the dialogue between our senses and the tactile world surfaces, dreaming to be the monument of our sensory architecture. '
Our previous 2 and ½ years in our times remind us there must be enormous unknown boundaries just outside our every growing knowledge of our world. What am I doing inside this chaos with my Seed works? I’ve been calling my works as the timeline containing our everyday architecture of tactile senses.
Cezanne made it clear that our senses do not represent the outer world as it is. It did not mean I cannot or do not have to represent the apples as they are. Without knowing the surface of the apple, we cannot learn how to cut the apple or how to make the juice out of it. Tactile transactions build up our everyday acts and process the result of acts. Cezanne just pointed out there is a ‘chasm’ between our senses toward the outside world and the understanding by the representation based on the sensory information. The chasm is not the object to deny, but to observe and keep dancing with the chasm. Without the chasm, there can hardly be an evolution or sudden dramatic discovery or such a big chaos of our recent 2 and ½ years.
This must be the core of my 2022 solo show works and the reason I call it A ‘Real Life Architecture’ (of Senses). 2022 Ilhwa Kim works strongly suggest you the chance to absorb the evolution of our tactile senses and manifest the system of experience. 'Real Life Architecture' works remind you of the chasm between everyday senses and their constant betrayal toward the next evolution.
When moving from painting to sculpture, I wanted to do everything I was able to use in painting; even brush strokes and all the wide color paints. However, it was not to portray another three dimensional apple in my paper sculpture. I needed my works to contain the real life architecture of our everyday experience and its betrayal toward sensory evolution. Also, I arranged the production process to accept last minute change as a result of tactile evolution between me and the work. Nothing has been glued or stuck until the last final seconds.
Real Life Architecture needs to be felt as a sensory monument. It needs to record the changing boundaries of our everyday sensory map. This personal architecture needed to contain my personal history of painting as well, the brushes, strokes, the colors.
A monument being able to record our sensory transactions, which keeps dancing with our everyday knowledge, the evolution, and the chasm. My real life architecture tries to understand the dynamism and the betrayal of the real life everyday experience.
