22.10.20 Kim, Lowa/Park, Jinhee

GALLERY SIL

Kim, Lowa
Park, Jinhee

“Encounters through the medium of yarn”

It has become visibly evident that technology is taking over us in many aspects, but there are two artists who still find significance in the human touch; Lowa Kim and Jinhee Park. Both creators use the medium of yarn but each tells an eccentric story, one by weaving and the other by knitting.

Lowa Kim weaves with an array of materials. She dissolves the boundaries among different elements as long as they could be extended in length. The audience is visually entertained by various colors and textures, and also by the sense of touch.

Jinhee Park spotlights “the conceptual and physical mixtures” and paints an autobiographical story through various materials. Her silent expressionism crosses the border as she combines textile with ingredients that are familiar to herself, such as music, scent, and kinetic art.

GALLERY SIL

Coexistence

Our society is built on coexistence. The two artists uniquely express this theme using materials of many properties. From Lowa Kim’s alien-shaped figure, inconsistent yarns, and colors of the extreme opposites, one can sense “alienation” within the realm of coexistence. Jinhee Park’s work is a form of metaphor where coexisting individuals are illustrated as polyps; the smallest unit of coral.

Alienated – Kim, Lowa

While an ideal society excludes no one, alienation is yet inevitable. The artist draws attention to those socially isolated either by regulations, standards, religion, or other reasons. The alien-like creature literally derives from the English word “alienated”. Those who feel like aliens in the seemingly coexisting society are grouped as an isolated block. One can see this from the utterly contrasting materials and colors.

Polyps – Park, Jinhee

The etymology of the word “polyp”, the smallest unit of coral, is traced to the Greek word polúpous. A polyp is a being of its own but cannot survive alone. Corals are an epitome of coexistence as they survive by creating a codependent colony. Individual polyps together build a colony of a certain shape, and colonies together build a reef. Through Park’s lenses, we see the resemblance between the autonomous but complementing individuals, and the coexisting oceanic creature.