ART WE LOVE: HWEON 1 by CHUNG-IM KIM

Hovering somewhere between painting, drawing and sculpture—and between pure visual art and design—Chung-Im Kim’s wall-mounted, hand-stitched felt plaque (which has been silkscreened), is a crisply vibrant work that seems simultaneously static and yet full of spinning, torque-like movement.

It sells for $800 and you can find it at the David Kaye Gallery, 1092 Queen Street West.   416-532-9075.

www.davidkayegallery.com.

Below is the artist’s statement:

For me, patterns are hard to ignore as I encounter everyday life. Whether the source comes from nature, historical context or plainly created by me, working with patterns always gives me the thrill of entering a new world. A pattern can grow into a complex image jungle or a well disciplined ornamental beauty. In this body of work, I was exploring the chaotic order resulting from many small pieces containing broken images. I tend to see each of these parts as an independent soul containing unique power and energy that then together becomes an entity as cells to a body. I hope to evoke the birthing tension when all are gathered.

Why felt? It has been many years since I was introduced to industrial felt, and was struck by the unique quality and rich potential of this relatively unknown material. The more I engaged the more I became attached to this material, and continue to explore it’s flexibility, shape forming ability, and forgiving nature. These qualities allow me to realize my ideas in a physical body of work. Like many in this field, I feel that understanding material fully and obtaining the technical skill to handle it are every bit as important as developing the idea. Still, I wouldn’t dare to say that I completely comprehend this material, felt, but that I hope there will be many more years ahead having fun with it.