Lot 1677: KIM EUN JIN

KIM EUN JIN
(B. 1968)
Taking a Turn in the Garden
signed 'Eun Jin Kim' in English (central)
pigment on silk mounted on panel, diptych
70 x 165.5 cm. (27 1/2 x 65 1/8 in.); & 115 x 165.5 cm. (45 1/4 x 65 1/8 in.) overall: 185 x 165.5 cm. (72 3/8 x 65 1/8 in.)

Seoul, Korea, CAIS Gallery, Spiritual of Splendors, 9 April-8 May, 2009.

CAIS Gallery, Kim Eun Jin, exh. cat., Seoul, Korea, 2009 (illustrated, p. 41).

Witty, frightening but spellbinding, Kim Eun Jin's painting is resentful in attitude as she successfully vents her frustration on the loss of innocence by developing a cross referential subject to impersonate the radical changes taking place under the inexorable weight of globalization and modernity.

The fire landscape strike us of our inner guilt with burning condemnation as the seemingly innocent child stands fearlessly within the forest of sin, unsettling us with complex emotions and uncomfortable awe. Regardless of its emotionally charged theme, we as a viewer find ourselves taking second but meticulous interest into the richness of the blaring red and its lavish patterning of the dark residues of burnt nature. Resourcefully indicated in Kim's separation of the canvas with the lower canvas titled towards the scenery, it expands the forest into a narrowing composition, powerfully luring the audience into death with a lead of a allegedly harmless, silently smiling, or perhaps cheekily smirking child dressed in pretty pink frills- the pink dress purposely conflicting against the red, prompting a visual nausea. With this hushed curse, the dog with his jeweled crown comes into view, making us question who the authoritative force in this painting may be. A parallel technique in religious use of light can be found as the protagonist is encircled with burning yellow, focusing the girl in odd supremacy.

Kim continues to explore the tasteful conundrum that juxtaposed imagery provides as she impersonates the characteristics of Baroque illusionism in grasping the natural dramatization of light against dark. Although this disciplined technique may be exhibited in her painting skills, Kim's interest in referencing Baroque art is solely in her maneuvering of visual motifs as her dark and light color palette, wittingly indicating that her painting is the visual reality of the current society, a place full of superficiality, manipulation, temptation and corruption by utilizing the contrasting imageries of a puppy and child against the vista that conjures a resemblance of hell. Responsive to public dialogue, Kim poignantly criticizes the tainted beliefs and morals of individuals and her veiled irritation in the infected purity of religion today.