Ayoung Kim was born in Seoul, Korea in 1979. Currently living in and working in London, Ayoung specialises in Photography and New Media. She received a B.A. in Visual Communication Design at Kookmin University in Seoul in 2002, as well as another B.A. (Honours) in Photography at London College of Communication. In 2010, she earned her M.A. in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. Ayoung is about to begin a residency at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany (Supported by Arts Council Korea). She will also be a part of Oriental VisArt’s upcoming group exhibition in Geneva in April. Her works have been shown all over the globe since 2006, and some of her most recent exhibitions include:
| Solo Exhibitions | ||
| 2010 | Minima Memoria | Street Level Gallery, Glasgow, UK |
| 2009 | A Delegation | Window Gallery at Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea |
| Ephemera | I-Myu Projects, London, UK | |
| Group Exhibitions | ||
| 2010 | Summer Exhibition 2010 | Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK |
| Window Vol.2 (Upcoming) |
Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea | |
| Hi, Mr. Lonely | Gana Contemporary and Gana Art Busan, Seoul and Busan, Korea | |
| 4482 Contemporary Korean Artists in London | Bargehouse, London, UK | |
| Osannolik Digital Festival | Kulturnatten, Växjö, Sweden | |
| Ways of Seeing (Part II) | I-Myu Projects, London, UK | |
| 2009 | 2009 Seoul International Photography Festival | Garden 5, Seoul, Korea |
| Korea Tomorrow | SETEC, Seoul, Korea | |
| Salon09 | Four Corners Film, London, UK | |
| Aim High: Joong-Ang Fine Arts Prize Awarded Artists Show | Hangaram Museum, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea | |
| Korean Eye: Moon Generation | Saatchi Gallery, London, UK | |
| The Cinematic-Montage | Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea | |
| The Irony | Kimi Art, Seoul, Korea | |
Ayoung Kim was featured in Minima Memoria,
Minima Memoria
Street Level Photoworks (2010) http://www.streetlevelphotoworks.org/
In Minima Memoria the artist has created a series of photographic and video works based around headlines in newspapers describing serious crimes, suicides, unusual incidents and disasters. From these headlines, she re-imagines and recreates the scenes as 3 dimensional photo-montages to bring a fresh and new perspective to the story. The artist has described the photographs as representing various fleeting and ephemeral events that happen in the world, being transformed into representations in news media.
‘(Kim) deconstructs and reconstructs a world of images to explore her own place within it… Her dizzying angular perspectives provide sets for staging herself, a character dislocated and displaced, finding echoes of her own experience in disasters that happened just around the corner, or to girls whose experience as students abroad mirrors her own (until the moment they disappeared). Meaning emerges from Kim’s fearless examination of the meaninglessness of these small catastrophes. She cannot unlock the mystery of Alexander Litvinenko’s death or an anonymous city suicide; the construction of each dense delirious image is an opportunity for the artist to project herself imaginatively into a scenario, to probe its poetic and metaphorical possibilities… Ayoung Kim restages the crime with the cool logic of the detective and the gruesome fascination of the voyeur. Her cutting and pasting takes place in three dimensional space, yielding impossible spaces for the eye to penetrate. In the process of montage some of the original meaning of the images is lost, and other meanings accrue.’
She says,
“‘It happens that the stage-sets collapse.’ – Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (Camus, 1955)
These photographs represents various events happened recently in the world or the traces or ambiences of after-the-accidents. I transform them into the stage sets/models I created. Researching of each tragic story, I take pictures from my environment and the actual scene of accident/crime, then alter the images and move them into stage sets according to each context of event.
The reality effect from built-up photographs exists only through camera with proper angle and composition and eventually in the final image, as the stage sets are temporary construction. These can be 3-dimensional photo montages or just stage-sets. Also, these are Ephemera (Items of short-lived duration, use, or interest) of Ephemera (a short-lived thing). Most of the title of each photograph is referring news headline, however, recent pieces have seemingly abstract titles as the work gradually became autonomous rather than dutifully following the narrative line.”
Please enjoy images of Ayoung’s works!
“CCTV Captures Death Chase, 19 July 2007”, digital c-type print, 160 x 120 cm (Edition 3+2AP) / 100 x 76 cm (Edition 5+2AP), 2008
“Policeman Falls to Death Trying to Save Suicide-Bid Youth, 05 Jun 2008”, digital c-type print, 163 x 210 cm(Edition 3+2AP) / 150x116cm (Edition 5+2AP), 2009
"Not in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time 2", digital c-type print, 160 x 120 cm, 2010
"Headless Body Found in Thames, 21 April, 2007", digital c-type print, 160 x 120 cm (Edition 3+2AP) / 100 x 76 cm (Edition 5+2AP), 2007
