Knots, Time Landscape
by June Kim
Date: 2023
Dimensions: 43 x 36 x 63.5 cm
Medium: Sculpture: plexiglass, wire
Number of editions: Unique edition
Price: 25,000€
Artwork Purpose
June Kim has been working for over 10 years to update the Asian belief in the red thread of destiny: “An invisible red thread links all those who are destined one day to meet...”. All her work shows a digital mutation of beliefs and relationships, a mutation also and above all strongly induced by the acceleration of communication modes and in particular social networks.
The artist is convinced that this thread has become real as technology has evolved. Today, algorithms create these links and connections between individuals, notably via social networks. In Knots, Time Landscape, the artist physically materializes an iteration of the analysis of her Facebook data to show her tree of potential knowledge.
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Each element is carefully selected and guided by the philosophy of Yin and Yang. Both the thinking and the design respond to this philosophy. Plexiglas, both solid and artificial, contrasts with thread, both soft and natural, while the mathematically-directed digital process contrasts with the spontaneous, instinctive craft of sewing (which can take 2-3 months for a sculpture of this size, and up to 6 months for an installation).
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June Kim digitally traces dots in acrylic sheets to form a digital diagram, which she then perforates to represent the invisible steps that create social relationships. The diagram of dots drawn on this sculpture is based on existing, ongoing data from her current number of friends on Facebook. These form an abstract social circle, blending the construction of a traditional family tree with a contemporary infographic social network. She then connects the dots with red threads that she sews and knots, symbolizing the existing connections between her friends on social networks. Each interaction is symbolized by a thread, and the size of the circles reflects the diversity of human interaction.
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The six Plexiglas plates echo the theory of the six degrees of separation (also known as the theory of the six handshakes), which is a theory evoking the possibility that every person on Earth can be linked to any other through a chain of individual relationships comprising a maximum of six links (taken up by Stanley Milgram through the study of the small world).
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Adress
You can discover the artworks in Paris or Versailles by appointment (write me).
Terms of delivery
Metropolitan France: 1 week
European Union: 2 weeks
Rest of the world: 2-4 weeks
Contact
+33 6 32 93 07 45
Biography
June Kim (born in 1987 in South Korea) is an artist who creates phygital installations made of red thread, from her data on social networks. The artist studied photography at the University of Bukyong (Busan), then left for the United States of America to join the Art College of Design in Pasadena, California, where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Artsarts. In 2010, she began her professional career by joining the team of a prestigious production studio in Los Angeles. June Kim is evolving with technology and developing a positive vision of digital and its growing impact on our contemporary societies.
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In parallel, June Kim develops her career as a visual artist. Her artistic work articulates a contemporary reflection around an ancient Asian belief: “An invisible red thread connects at birth those who are destined to meet.” The two people connected by the red wire are lovers destined to be together, regardless of the place, time or circumstances. In Europe, we could compare this concept to the idea of “soul mate”, although this thread can also connect a person to his/her mother, father, brother, friend, So they can discover and love each other. If the red thread and the Asian belief behind this motif are recurring in the work of many artists like Chiharu Shiota or David ÄŒerný, June KIM’s works bring a new dimension to these concepts. For the artist, the theory of the red thread - an Asian poetic equivalent of the concept of Destiny - is no longer a mere belief, but is anchored in a tangible reality: Humans invented Fate, these invisible red threads today exist indeed, they are our algorithms.
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Following a long period of overwork, June Kim feels the need to reconnect with her cultural roots and the natural environment around her. The artist makes the decision to leave the big production studios in Los Angeles to set up her own agency, on a human scale, thus benefiting from a more serene work rhythm. The question of her connection to nature gradually became a prominent subject in her personal and then artistic reflection over the last four years. The development of recent tools using artificial intelligence processes allows her to incorporate a new dimension in her work, pushing her to explore the possibilities of intangible art.
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Her still images and digital animations explore ways of reconnecting humans with Nature, through the creation of imaginary landscapes rooted in reality, traversed on either side by abstract red threads. This new facet of her work explores the question of human filiation to Nature, where the red thread becomes an umbilical cord to which every human being is attached.
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If June Kim feel in the new artificial intelligence processes a new tool for artists, she warned on the need to succeed in transmitting to these software its own philosophy of creation, its artistic touch, which she groups under the concept of “prompt philosophy”.
Her work has been awarded multiple times (SeeMe Global Competition, Scope Art Show Art Basel 2012, California Open Exhibition 2013, finalist Apple Vision Pro...). June Kim took part to numerous art exhibitions in California (Main Museum, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, BG Gallery, H Gallery, Irvine Fine Arts Center…). From 2019, her work is exhibited in many international exhibitions or fairs (Gallery Space776 in New York, Gallery 508 in Londres, Stratosphere NFT in Pékin, Maison des Associés in Toulouse, galerie Iham in Paris, Gallery XR in Séoul, Los Angeles Art Show 2019, 2021 and 2022, Bitcoin 2021, NFT NYC 2021, BWB 2022, Art Basel Miami 2022, NFT Paris 2024...).
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Text written by Annelise Stern - copyright Art Girls