Korea-born, -based artist uses collected items of clothing and material as a medium to explore societal, political and cultural issues. ‘Wearing Chairs While Sitting on Pants’ questions why furniture often feels less intimate than clothing, and examines the defining elements of both furniture and clothes. Moreover, Kim questions what leads consumers to buy each item, whether they protect our body and/or personal belongings, and draws parallels between the functions of features such as pockets and drawers.
Kim asserts that both furniture and clothing mediate the body in its environment via varying levels of intimacy and mobility. “I question the constraints of these assumptions by exploring the seam between the categories of furniture and clothing, with the intention of more deliberately activating a new object category in that between-space,” says Kim.
The experimental collection synthesizes and juxtaposes existing forms, functions and materials, creating objects that pose questions rather than make declarative statements. Fuelled both by Kim’s personal passion for clothing, and eagerness to make furniture-like clothing, the series aims to activate the participant’s imagination. Audiences are provoked to reconsider how the materials function in relation to their own bodies, spaces and lives.
“Are new words, functions or aesthetic values generated? And more expansively, how might the blurring or recasting of this boundary suggest the productive rethinking of other object categories?” ponders Kim.
Each chair is composed of a patchwork of various materials such as leather, plastic, a motosuit, faux fur, Velcro, a car console, a massage chair, and a scooter saddle. The pieces have a retro yet abstract contemporary aesthetic. Each chair is also ‘wearable’, though not in a conventional or functional way. Rather, openings in the material can be used as head or arm holes, and resemble an obscure costume when worn on the human form.
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