Throughout his prolific career, Korean visual artist Gimhongsok has built an oeuvre that spans performance, sculpture, video and installations. His work has been described as both ‘comedic’ and ‘provocative.’ At Tina Kim Gallery, the artist focuses on his latest sculptural output.
Spanning two sets of works, the exhibit, titled “Dwarf, Dust, Doubt,” includes works from Gimhongsok’s series “Untitled (Short People)” and “Incomplete Order Development.”
The nineteen sculptures on display from the series “Untitled (Short People),” 2017–, include Cubist humanoid figures, which the artists constructs to appear as though they are either balancing on their heads or standing upright. Standing at three feet high, they are inviting, curiously comical pieces that mix tradition with contemporaneity in the way that they invite communication but also bring into question the ethics of identity and personal experience. How a viewer experiences a completed artwork, removed from Gimhongsok’ creative process, is a concept the artist has been curiously interested in throughout his career.
Both whimsical and enigmatic, works from the series “Incomplete Order Development” (2018) include stacks of balloons cast in bronze and perched atop a stone. Arranged irregularly to represent the diversity of an individual’s life, Gimhongsok uses them to conceptualize the reduction of conventionally accepted truths – such as the titular dwarf, dust, doubt – to ambiguously interpretative abstractions. He makes this more clear in his own words, saying “I object to describing a dwarf as alienated, marginalized or of lesser than. I oppose literature that describes dust as weightless or insignificant. I remain doubtful about all information, regardless of its source.”
Gimhongsok has made challenging the traditional definition of “completeness” a consistent feature of his recent work – and much of this is on display throughout this exhibition. In his own words, Gimhongsok claimed that his works “challenge ethical conventions and audience reactions are generally split between antagonism and acceptance.”
Gimhongsok’s works are included in numerous collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, the National Gallery of Canada, Queensland Art Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art, Le Consortium, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and the Seoul Museum of Art.
‘Dwarf, Dust, Doubt’ is on view at New York’s Tina Kim Gallery through November 30th.
Gimhongsok, Untitled (Short People), Yellow, Yellow, Pink, Yellow, 2018, Cast bronze, stone, 49.21 x 14.17 x 15.75 inches
Gimhongsok, Surrender – Brown, 2018, High-strength grout cement, 34.25 x 15.75 x 11.81 inches
Gimhongsok Dwarf, Dust, Doubt Tina Kim Gallery 525 West 21st Street, New York, NY October 25 - November 30
