Where the story ends: Chinwook Kim
Chinwook Kim’s paintings are free from a fixed space or time. Lines stretch across the canvas twisting and connecting, sometimes forming a mass that becomes a human body. At other times, the flowing lines grow into plants or create structures like chairs or swings. These partial images of people, animals, or plants are the only clear elements in his landscapes.
The scenes unfold in a very sensory and mysterious way. He does not begin with a full plan. Instead, he lets his hand move along the flow of his unconscious mind. In the 《Inside and Outside Landscape》 series, the works become scenes of his inner world and the world he sees. The landscapes are built around lines, which is not surprising since he studied traditional East Asian painting. The faint images of bodies and nature are softly hidden in lightly coloured backgrounds, as if they are not important clues. Open spaces on the canvas appear where the flow of lines pauses and allows room to breathe. These spaces feel as if they connect to a world beyond the canvas and suggest the start of a new journey.
While his paintings require viewers to follow the lines like a puzzle and piece together hidden stories, his box works present the scene more clearly. Beneath the surface of the box, filled with epoxy that looks like still water, the lines of thought lie submerged. Shapes of nature or the human body rise above the surface. Boxes are usually used to store things. They hold precious objects or keep small memories. Kim says he chooses materials on impulse. The landscapes he imagines are not far from his own life. A plate he used for paint, stories from people around him, past events, or a box in his studio all appear as clues in his work.
The world Kim shows becomes stronger because he does not give clear information. Through abstraction, he reduces the gap between subject and object and speaks about a desire for a complete world. Yet the landscapes he presents do not easily reveal their secrets. As seen in the box works he has continued since his time studying in Germany, that world seems closed and requires effort to open. In his paintings, viewers must search for hidden images and discover stories.
Time cannot be turned back, but stories move forward from one part to the next through time. Among the many stories around us, which one is true? Truth is subjective, and there is no single truth. In this way, a story becomes a simple tool that can make something feel true.
When all the imagined stories around Chinwook Kim’s world come to an end, viewers will find the landscape itself placed before their eyes. No matter our guesses or interpretations, his world finally reveals its full form at the moment. (Dakyung Jung, Gallery Chosun)