Kim Su Yeon: Catcher

Chapter II is delighted to announce Catcher, a solo exhibition of works by Kim Su Yeon, from 10th October to 23rd November 2024 in Yeonnam-dong, Seoul. Kim has continued the ‘Weather Series’ by visualizing time, often represented by weather, into matter. In this exhibition, she reveals the result of her records on the temperature and humidity of four seasons, collected during Chapter II Residency 2023, delivered onto canvases.

Kim Su Yeon (b.1986) completed an MFA and BFA in Painting at Kookmin University. Her solo exhibitions opened at Gallery2 Joongsun Nongwon (2024), P21 (2022), Gallery2 (2021, 2018, 2017), SH Art Project (2019). She participated in several group exhibitions at leading contemporary art establishments, such as Korean Culture Center in Hong Kong (2024), Chapter II (2023), Esther Schipper Berlin/Seoul (2023), Artcenter Whiteblock (2023), Ulsan Art Museum (2022), Museumhead (2021), OCI Museum of Art (2020), Ilmin Museum of Art (2019) and Busan Museum of Art (2018).

Artist’s Statement (2024)

Over the last decade, I have created three-dimensional figures by using text clippings selected from illustrated plant books, encyclopedias or pornography at first and turned the outcomes into still-life paintings. Including the ‘weather series,’ relatively recently produced, I have consistently dealt with things that existed but disappeared now or exist but unseen, as a leitmotif of my practice. Since I became a resident artist of Chapter II, I prioritized “how” I would paint rather than “what” I would paint through my experiment.

What I apply over canvas backgrounds is an acrylic medium. Though it plays a supplement role for colour paint, it leaves traces arbitrarily according to temperature and humidity of the time. The more severe the difference in temperature and humidity of the outside and the indoors becomes, the more unpredictable marks of the medium appear on the surface. I documented the invisible meteorological features, including temperature and humidity, for a year from November 2023 to October 2024. In late autumn, when the gap in temperature and humidity of the outside and the indoors drastically increases, especially during a cold spell or heat wave, dramatic cracks looking like scars emerge on the surfaces of the medium.

I took photos of the impressive sky of the day with a mobile camera and cropped the sections I liked most. Then, I mixed the colours of the cropped images with the medium and poured 340-380ml of it on a number-8-sized canvas. As soon as this procedure was done, I checked the temperature and humidity of the outside and the indoors and recorded not only them but the names and quantities of the acrylics I blended with the medium.

The series was possible while I experimented with materials to find the appropriate background to portray specific targets. As it was difficult to make the surface even and slick, I had to repeat sandpapering the surface, which was not satisfying enough, and later, reapplying several coats of the medium. Consequently, this course was suppressing my creative impulse and letting the pace of production loosened.

Then, one day, when I was gazing at the failed background paintings stacked on the corner, I suddenly realized that the traces I had defined as failure could have spontaneously conveyed a certain aesthetic value. They had been failures for me even before painting, but after that moment, I started focusing on images only meteorological factors (temperature, humidity) could achieve without intention and documenting them. I attempt to manifest invisible everyday weather in the immaterial realm through material. During the experiment over a year, I could not encounter any moments when the temperature and humidity were identical between the outside and inside. The frequency of gaining a relatively even surface was only 5 in every 150 pieces. The satisfying state of moment close to perfection was never.

After a year of experiments, I can find that any day does not have identical traces or shapes (including a collection of wind vestiges). Many people, including myself, often complain, saying, “Each day repeats itself.”  Even though time and date are artificial concepts that numb us to the difference of days, every day has its history.

We are too familiar with those man-decided systems to treat every day as a particular day; nevertheless, today is not yesterday. Looking at each trace creating its distinct patterns, I believe that even if it can be slow and subtle, I (and we all) steadily change every day of my life.