Profile
* E-mail : fromjaebumkim@gmail.com
B. A Photography, Shingu college, sun-nam, Korea
Selected Exhibition
2012 ‘Stakeout’ Song-eun Art Cube, Seoul, Korea. (solo show)
2011 ‘Artist at the scene’ Gallery Jung-Mi-So, directed by , Seoul, Korea
City Net Asia 2011 ‘Silent Conflict’, Seoul Museum of Art, curated by Wooim Kim,
Seoul. Korea
‘Faction, Show!’ Ilhyun Museum, curated by Yoo Jin Kim, Yangyang, Korea
‘What had happened’, Doosan Gallery, curated by Jin Woo Jeong, Seoul, Korea
‘Last summer’ Gallery Jung-Mi-So, curated by Jang-un Kim, Seoul, Korea
2010 ‘Generally Evil.’ Dukwon Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea. (solo show)
‘Archive of Imagination’, Gallery Sangsangmadang, directed by Noam Kim, Seoul, Korea
‘Morality’ project Act5 “Power Alone” Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art,
directed by Nicolaus Schafhausen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2009 Platform 2009, ‘Void of Memory’ SAMUSO, directed by Kim sun-jung, Seoul, Korea
Asian Art Biennial, ‘Viewpoints & Viewing Points’ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
directed by Chao-yi Tsai Taichung, Taiwan
Award & Residency
2011 Spinnerei, L.I.A(Leipzig International Art program), Leipzig, German
Selected to ‘Asia culture messenger’, Ministry of culture, sports & tourism. Korea
Works
A Critique of Kim Jae-bum
Ryu Han-seung
(Curator, National Museum of
Contemporary Art, Korea)
Kim Jae-bum pays attention to the eccentric
events that take place in our society. He mainly deals with mysterious and
bizarre events such as the exposure of a baby, the murder of the girl friend’s
mother, the attempt to removing the fetus from an abducted pregnant woman, and
the killing of a person and eating of the human flesh. However, he focuses on
the cause and background of such events and how people see them rather than the
cruelty and horror of the events.
He points out the ‘emotion’ as something we must take cautions against when handling these cases. Since the outcomes of actual events are quite astonishing, people only focus on the results instead of seriously contemplating why the event took place and the media (press) has the tendency of telling the story more stimulatingly to draw people’s attention. They also sometimes regard the events as a personal affair, something that an abnormal person such as a psychopath or a depraved person committed, but it fact, the events were influenced by the subtle loopholes in the laws, systems, morals, and ethics that people developed.
Kim reproduces the images from the time slot immediately before the event takes places in photographs in order to remove the ‘emotion.’(Photograph is taken in the place the actual event took place as much as possible.) This is to examine the details and cause of the event in various angles by moving away from the images of the horrible results. Instead, he includes various elements that become the signs and clues for the event in the photograph. He inserts objects related with the event or unexpected objects and sets uplogical contradictions such as shadows not in line with the direction of the light or producesominous mood.
In the past, he focused on rather widely known events such as the Namdaemun Fire, 911 Terror, and the Shooting at Virginia Tech, but currently he chooses the events that are not very well known. For the events that are very well known, the audience can easily approach the works based on the knowledge they already have, but that knowledge they have can also prevent them from understanding the works objectively. After the shift of topics, he increased the hints for the events in the exhibition area. He clipped press releases related with the event and pasted them on the walls, hoping that the audience approaches the event knowing the basic information.(The clippings were also used in the past.)
In the recent private exhibition (Songeun Artcube, May, 2012), Kim constructed a cube space called <Cube>.The clippings about the work are pasted on the outer surface of the cube. The artist says that the process of pasting the clippings is similar to how he progresses the work. In other words, it is possible to obtain the basic information about the cube but also understand how the artist works.
He also brought 3 books that he read to the
exhibition area. Since the Post It is put on the impressive part, the audience
can guess what the artist is interested in and which stance he takes about the
subject matter. However, he does not want the audience to interpret his work in
the way he intended nor provides any answer.
As described, Kim’s work is comprised of more
than photographs. He investigates an event thoroughly, expresses it through photographs,
and exhibits related clippings. Primarily, the photographs generate the meaning
of the work in connection with clippings, and then the audience interprets the
work actively, amplifying and varying the meaning of the work.
