KOREA FOUNDATION

Artist Jihee Kim is active in Seoul, London, Tokyo, and Taipei. Participating in residency programs overseas, she conducts drawing workshops for people with no professional training in fine art. Using drawings as an effective means of communication, a method that is more powerful than language, Kim not only showcases Korea’s potential in the field of arts and culture, but also sets a good example of how an artist can bring people together in exchanges that transcend national boundaries.

An artist who ‘thinks, remembers, and communicates’ through drawings
‘Book drawing’ using books donated by libraries in Britain
Conducting drawing workshops in London, Taipei, and Tokyo
Kim interacts with a worldwide audience through the visual language of drawing, a method far stronger than verbal or written communication.
KF-supported international artists’ exchanges, offering a precious foundation for public diplomacy

How are you? You have had a busy first half of the year, holding a solo exhibition and earning your doctoral degree. How are you feeling these days?
Glad to see you. In April, I held a solo show titled Your Hands Are Mine. These days, I am preparing for my next exhibitions. I also meet college students, teaching contemporary art with a focus on drawings and paintings.

You usually introduce yourself as “a person who thinks through drawings.” Would you explain what that means?
The visual language of drawing is the core of my work. The natural spontaneity and sensitivity of drawings from the crucial areas of my creative life. I define myself as a person who thinks, remembers, and works through drawings.

Your studies at Goldsmiths, University of London, seem to have influenced your work. It was also the time when you began “book drawing,” a method that now forms the backbone of your artistic projects. How did that come about?
As you said, studying at Goldsmiths marked a turning point in my career. I am still inspired by my experience there—the unfamiliar environment, the people I met, the contemporary art of Britain, the beautiful museums and galleries, and the philosophy embodied in contemporary arts. I could concentrate solely on myself and my work, and develop on my own. In the case of book drawing, I open a book and select a word on a particular page. I then paint memories or feelings that the word evokes in me. I began book drawing sometime around 2011 and it was the first project for which I had to muster up some kind of courage. I left my studio, searched libraries in London, and then wrote to them asking for donations of books that were going to be discarded. It was quite an adventure for me to meet library staff, explain my project, and persuade them to donate the books to me. That was something I couldn’t even imagine doing before starting the project. As I went through this process, I think it helped me develop my work.

After your studies in London, you took part in various overseas artist residency programs that promote exchanges and joint projects. Could you tell us about your latest residency program in Tokyo?
My days in Tokyo offered me an opportunity to take a fresh look at Japan. I used to think that I knew the country fairly well, but while living there I realized I was wrong. This year, I was able to study traditional Japanese arts in depth, and was especially amazed by the detailed methods of expression of Ukiyo-e, the genre of painting that was popular during the Edo Period. I was particularly inspired by the hands of the people in the paintings and interpreted them in my drawings. Your Hands Are Mine is an exhibition based on my new drawings of hands created while in Japan, as well as my previous works which centered on hands. Every time I participate in residency programs overseas, including in Tokyo, Taipei, and Kaohsiung, I gain new experiences. Rather than being brief visits for work, I experience life there, which in turn broadens the scope of my exchanges with foreign artists and other people in field.

You always hold drawing workshops in the cities of your residency programs. What are your expectations for those workshops?
The book drawing project I mentioned earlier can be said to have originated from my awareness of language barriers. As I encountered such barriers and acutely experienced exclusion from communication, I came to have a greater yearning to communicate through images rather than through language, and found new inspiration in that regard. I then planned and conducted drawing workshops in Britain, Taiwan, and Japan, in which communication was visual between people speaking different languages. In the planning stage I had certain expectations, but the actual outcome exceeded them. It was amazing that active communication was possible among people who could not understand each other’s language. It was an interesting project that made me reconsider the power of drawing and the nature of communication.

Are there any national differences in the inclinations and characters of the participants in those workshops?
Over 90 percent of the participants did not have any professional training in the arts. The most wonderful thing about them was that they had no fear about expressing themselves in their drawings, even if they were not art majors. I was tremendously impressed by the participants in the Taipei workshop. They were truly bold and daring in expressing themselves through their drawings. It was intriguing that the methods of expression differed slightly from country to country. The participants in London liked simple, beautiful line drawings, while those in Taipei and Kaohsiung usually began by painting with bright colors. Those in Tokyo and Seoul tended to draw with an appropriate harmony of planes and lines.

Global exchanges in culture and the arts are a major direction of the KF’s programs. Would you like to make any suggestions from the standpoint of an artist?
I would like to have an opportunity to develop my work by participating in a KF project someday. For an artist, the material and psychological support provides a tremendously important foundation for sustained work. Overseas activities offer a particular impetus to expand artists’ visions and the scope of their work. For artists’ home countries, such support augments the human resources in the arts and upgrades the national standard of cultural and artistic projects. A mature state of arts and culture is a solid source for public diplomacy. As an institution specializing in public diplomacy, the KF is in a good place to promote overseas activities in the arts, and to expand the range of arts and culture projects.

x=b, hologram stickers on donated book pages, 23 × 30 cm, 2016
© 2020 Jihee Kim All rights reserved. Photos by Junyong Cho

Uncanny Skin 3, gouache and ink on paper, 131 × 250.5 cm, 2019
© 2020 Jihee Kim All rights reserved. Photos by Junyong Cho