GALLERY MoMo

11:00 - 19:00 Closed on Sunday and Monday

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GALLERY MoMo Ryogoku is pleased to present "Silent Speaking," a solo exhibition by Woojin Kim, from July 20 (Sat) to August 4 (Sun), 2024. The title "Silent Speaking" is derived from the term "silent letter," which refers to a letter that is written in a word but not pronounced, and is, therefore, an imagery of a language that exists but can be said to be nonexistent. The title implies that the voice of an endangered language may exist, but if we are not aware of it, it will soon disappear.

 

Woojin Kim was born in 1976 and graduated from the Department of Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2012 and completed her doctoral studies at Ewha Womans University in 2019. She has had solo exhibitions in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong, and has participated in many residency programs including Artist Residency Koganecho, Yokohama, Japan; Tokyo Arts and Space, Tokyo, Japan; and MMCA Goyang Residency, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeonggi-do, Korea and so on.

 

While participating in various residency programs in other countries, KIM has immersed herself in a community for a while, exploring the hidden frameworks within the societies and the social conditions in which they function, and observing how they affect the individuals. Tracing this within a social and historical context, she has collected personal records to create her work. KIM says, "I want to crack open our firmly held notions of 'good/bad' and 'true/false,'" and seeks to make us aware of social conventions of which we have been unaware.

 

In addition to the series "The Prelude of The Perfect Ending" and "The Ghost, Sea and Moebius Loop" from her signature project "Memories Project," the exhibition will feature "And, I Decide to Make a Short Play," a new work based on the Ainu language and Uchinanchu, a minority language of Hokkaido and Okinawa.

 

"The Prelude of The Perfect Ending" is an audio-video work based on interviews with various generations about minority languages spoken in Taiwan, Jeju Island in Korea, and Hong Kong. The work does not show the faces of the people actually speaking but rather shows clay-like objects being kneaded and molded by human hands. This is similar to the process by which fixed concepts are formed in our lives. Through the process of language change as told by individuals through their own experiences, the work makes us aware of the frameworks and boundaries that have been created within us and questions what it is that creates these frameworks.

 

In studying these disappearing languages, KIM has noticed that a few languages are not translated on the Internet. She created "The Ghost, Sea and Moebius Loop," which juxtaposes languages that are being further eliminated by digitization with the loss of local cities due to the concentration of population in cities.

 

In her new work "And, I Decide to Make a Short Play," she created a short play based on audio interviews with people who speak Ainu and Uchinanchu, two of Japan's minority languages, by piecing together disparate interviews. For many viewers, the Japanese translation (or English translation) is the only way to understand each language, but the text translated by the AI was not clear enough to make sense and felt strange. Also, partially clipped words, taken out of context, obscure the true meaning, and the viewer begins to question the Japanese words that they should be able to understand.

 

We hope you will enjoy the video works, which ask various questions of itself and its viewers while incorporating a variety of devices within the work. KIM also joined in the group exhibition, "Particulate Breath: Residence 2024" at Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo from June 29 (Sat) to August 4 (Sun), 2024.

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"Mind map: Journey of the Memories project" 2024, installation, variable size

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Biography

1976 Born in South Korea

2019 Doctor of Fine Art, Fine Art_Painting, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

2012 Master of Fine Art, Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK.

 

 

Selected Solo Exhibition

2023 "Post Modern Children" Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, South Korea

2022 "The Freezing Point, The Evaporation Point" Kim Chong Yung Museum, Seoul, South Korea

2021 "Songeun Art Award" Songeun, Seoul, South Korea

2019 "You will have to follow the directions you hear" Alternative Space Loop, Seoul, South Korea

2017 "Brave New Exercise: Memorizes Movements (OPEN SITE 2017-2018)"  Tokyo Art and Space, Hongo, Tokyo, Japan 

 

Selected Grants and Awards

2022 Visual Art Grant, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

2020 Public Art New Hero, Winner, South Korea

2019 Visual Art Grant, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

2018 Gyeonggi-do Art Council International Exchange Fund, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

2017 OPEN SITE, selected artist, Tokyo Art and Space, Tokyo, Japan

2012 Korean Culture Centre UK Young artists open call, Finalist, London, UK

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Selected Residency Programs

2023 Tokyo Art and Space, Tokyo, Japan

2022 Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, Korea

2018 MMCA Changdong residency project team, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul (Z-A team project), South Korea

2016 Bamboo Curtain Studio, Taipei, Taiwan 

2015 Koganecho residency, Yokohama, Japan 

2014 MMCA Goyang residency, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Goyang, South Korea

2014 Artist in Residence in Dunedin School of Art, Asia New Zealand Foundation, New Zealand

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