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Sex, drugs and how art helps us understand the human condition: an interview with artist In Sook Kim
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(Suicide in) Room 606, © In Sook Kim
“Every man carries within him the entire form of our human condition”
Michel de Montaigne
An hour before the opening of her reception held last Saturday, March 14, I sat down with In Sook Kim in the back reception room on the second floor of the Gana Art Gallery in Chelsea.
Outside the room, on display were three seminal photographs that she had composed over the last four years: Das Abendessen (The Dinner, 2005), Die Auktion (The Auction, 2006) and Saturday Night (2007).
I had arranged an interview with the artist because I was introduced to her work and subsequently intrigued to know more the week before at the Armory Show. I was particularly interested to know how her work came to contrast with that of her professor, Thomas Ruff, while she studied under him at the Düsseldorfer Akademie in Germany.
Our conversation follows. (Note: As English is a second language for her, I’ve taken some liberty and poetic license to fill in the gaps and help the narrative flow.)
You began your studies as a photographer at the age of 31 in 2001. What happened and how did you come to make the decision of becoming an artist at such a late age?
I used to paint and draw when I was younger, so I have been creative for much of my life. However, I ended up becoming and working as a computer designer.
Then when I was 26 I had tuberculosis and I was in the hospital for 7 months, and it took another 3 months for me to recover.
Upon my recovery I received a special gift that allowed me to travel the world. I went to Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, India, Greece, all through Europe, Canada and New York City and San Francisco here in the United States.
All that time I traveled with only one sole companion—my camera. And it was this friend that helped me see the world in a whole new light. I learned that the camera can be your best friend because it is honest and it allows you to express yourself honestly. Mediums like painting and sculpture however always were somewhat abstract for me. I found that photography is a true and a better way of expressing reality and what I wanted to say.
Moreover, I discovered that photography proved to be a portal through which we could all communicate and understand each other regardless of our different cultures and languages. In other words, photography is a universal language.
Thus, in 1999 I decided I wanted to study photography. I had my heart set on Yale but it was too expensive. I also thought about studying in New York City, but after living here for 9 months I found that it was too expensive as well.
Then, a friend of mine who was living in Düsseldorf at the time, told me that Jeff Wall, a Canadian photographer whose work I admired, was going to teach at the university. So I decided to move to Düsseldorf because the university is free and it would afford me an opportunity to study under him.
However, soon after I arrived, Jeff had an accident and had to return to Canada. Thus, Thomas Ruff came in to replace him and that is how I came to study under him.
(According to Wikipedia, “In 1996 Jeff Wall was to replace Bernd Becher as head professor of the photography department at the Düsseldorf Academy, but was confronted by a former Becher student who pointed a loaded gun at him. He immediately resigned.” Click here to see photos by Jeff Wall.)
What did you learn from Ruff and how have you applied what you learned to your art?
Thomas Ruff is a conceptual artist, so it is very important for him to express what he is thinking. To him, the subject matter wasn’t as important as what it conveyed and meant to him.
So, he made me think, he made me put some thought into what I do, so that I might substantiate the work and make it more meaningful.
That said, sometimes I feel that my work may not be art, but more like a study of people and the human condition. I am very interested in people and in particular how sexuality allows them to express themselves.
Sexuality is infused in all three pieces that you have on display here at the gallery. Please elaborate on what they mean and why you came to focus on this subject.
Well, as you know I am Korean and thus I grew up in a very conservative culture. When I saw porno for the first time I was utterly shocked. However, Koreans have long been influenced by American culture and thus over the last forty years things have changed and Koreans are more open to the topic of sexuality.
That said, Americans and Koreans are still much more conservative about the subject than I found the Germans to be, because they accept and openly embrace everything sexual. There are no taboos there.
Thus, studying there allowed me to freely explore a part of humanity and me that had long been repressed. And studying sexuality helped me understand something that is part of the universal human condition and experience; it helped me understand both how I am like everyone else, and how I am wholly different as well.
Artists & Photographers Mark Kessell | Curators & Dealers Bonni Benrubi Daniel Cooney Howard Greenberg |
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