<The Cover Artist> Cosmic Dream Sunny Kim
Written by Hwasaan Goowon Kang (Editor in Chief of Vergil America and artist)
Translated by Sahmun Kim (a Reporter of Vergil America)
It is amusing to appreciate Sunny Kim’s paintings while putting their meaning together and to parade some words such as the earth, the sky, cosmos, a whirlwind, chaos, the youth, love, Noah’s ark, a bird, and thunder. As if the cosmic energy is created and destroyed, a mixed feeling of the shape and non-shape is crossed. Not only is the primitive unrefined vigor delivered tightly but also a flexible and destructive feeling comes devastatingly with the bitter sense of adolescence. The condensed canvas, by scattering and dripping as well as brushing, is the total combination of gestures and a language, which is united in the energy of the artist and the air. Maybe it is the purification and pleasure felt in Gudpahn that is a Korean traditional shamanism.
Sunny Kim’s art period can be divided into three different parts. First, it was in the Seoul period that she became one of the ten new Korean artists through her time as a student majoring in art at the Seoul Art High School and Seoul National University. Second, it was in her New York Period that was recorded in Creativity 1972 as a designer and graduated from Parsons School of Design, New York. Third, it is the Los Angeles Period that has been revealed in her career for fashion design, literature and fine art after she got married.
땅, 하늘, 우주, 격정, 회오리, 혼돈, 청춘, 사랑, 노아의 방주, 새, 천둥과 같은 단어를 나열하고 Sunny Kim 그림을 보면서 하나씩 결합하고 분석하는 것이 즐겁다. 우주의 기운으로 생성, 소멸하는 듯 형상과 비형상이 교차하면서 아직은 정제되지 않은 원초적인 강건함이 옥조이듯 전달되고, 가슴이 찢어질 것 같은 탄력과 파괴감이 젊은 날의 격한 감성으로 다가온다. 붓질과 함께 뿌리고 흘리면서 응축된 화면은 화가와 대기의 기운이 합일된, 몸짓과 언어의 총체적인 결합이다. 어쩌면 한국의 전통적인 무속의 굿판에서 느껴지는 정화와 해방의 쾌감을 맛본다고나 할까…….
Sunny Kim 예술을 시기별로 나누어 보면 서울예고와 서울대미대를 무시험 특차로 들어가 대학 때부터 국전에 출품하고, 졸업 즈음 한국의 새로운 아티스트 10명중 한명으로 뽑힌 젊은 날의 서울시대, 두 번째는 미국 뉴욕 Parsons School of Design 학교졸업과 디자이너로서 Creativity 1972에 등재되었던 뉴욕시대, 그리고 결혼과 함께 LA에서의 패션디자인과 문학과 회화를 종합적으로 드러낸 시기로 나누어 볼 수 있다.
In her youth in the Seoul period while in the process of forming her frame of thoughts, the artist made her direction in life as an artist, engaging with the phases of the times in Korea. It was shown in her paintings such as the relationship between a society and a person, a psychological factor, and a nationality and the national value as an ideology.
In her New York period, she absorbed the diversity, gained the novelty, and sought the universal aesthetic sense. Especially it was the period that she won a deep sympathy for the world of abstract expressionism.
In the LA period, which is still going on until now, she has gotten free from the frame of the expression and technique as the result of breaking down the border of genres, and synthesizing and analyzing several fields which she has studied and searched
젊은 날 서울시대는 생각의 틀을 만드는 과정으로서 당시 한국의 시대상과 맞물리면서 예술가로서의 방향키를 만드는 시기라 할 수 있다. 이는 사회와 개인 간의 관계와 심리적 요소 그리고 이념으로서의 민족과 국가관등이 표현된 시기이다.
뉴욕시대는 뉴욕이라는 도시적 특성과 맞물리면서 다양성을 흡입하고 새로움을 체득, 활용하면서 보편적 미의식에 대한 탐구의 시기였다. 특히 추상표현주의적인 세계에 대한 깊은 공감을 얻은 시기이기도하다.
결혼과 함께 이루어진 LA시기는 좀 더 세분화하여 나눌 수 있지만 지금도 활발한 활동을 하는 과정이기에 포괄하여 간단하게 설명한다면 장르의 경계를 허물면서 그동안 공부하고 추구해온 여러 분야를 종합하고 분석하여 표현과 기법의 틀에서 해방된 자유를 득한 시기라 여겨진다.
She is holding so much to the factor of abstract expressionism and even deepening it such as Action Painting of Jackson Pollack, the margin and line’s aesthetics crossed in Sam Francis’ drips and splatters of color, Willem de Kooning’s inborn propensity, and human nature based on Hsün-tzŭ’s theory that human nature is fundamentally evil. Furthermore, she is also dealing with the basic human emotions, which are shown in the multiforms and the signature paintings of Mark Rothko, the emptiness and fullness related in traditional Soomuk that is an ink-and-water painting, and the psychological and spiritual problems of human-beings. Her artwork has so much cathartic pleasure, which is a phase of the consciousness in the past tragic situation and chaos in Korea. And it can be translated that instructive meanings of a shaman ritual, fear and sympathy are expressed in the extended dream of the universe.
좀 더 깊게 들어가면 잭슨 폴록의 액션페인팅, 샘 프란시스의 흘림과 뿌리기에서 교차되는 여백과 선의 미학, 윌리엄 드쿠닝의 타고난 성질과 감정에 맡긴 순자의 성악설에 근거한 본성등… 추상표현주의요소를 많이 견지하고 심화시키고 있다. 더 나아가 마크 로스코의 색면추상 에서 보이는 정신성과 동양의 전통 수묵과의 연계에서 오는 비움과 충만함 그리고 인간의 심리와 영적인 문제를 다루고 있기도 하다. 연결하여 그녀의 작업이 매우 카타르시스적인 쾌감을 안고 있는데, 이는 지난날 한국의 비극적인 상황과 혼돈으로 내제된 의식의 한 단면으로 씻김과 공포 그리고 연민의 교훈적인 의미가 우주의 확장된 꿈으로 표출된 것으로 해석된다.
In a series of her artworks “Cosmic Dream” 09 to 10, they symbolize the spiritual shape of Almighty God. Changeable illusionary features give the message of truth that the sword exists in the image coming from the night sky. It implies the world of gradual extension that some warm colors are on the very restrained achromatic color. This is connected to the world of warmth and purification that makes people return to pure feelings. In a series of her artworks “Cosmic Dream” 11, the combination, which is the primary ground colors and the repressed touches, gives the positive energy from the tragedy. In a series of her artworks “Cosmic Dream” 13, they unite the universe as a thought with the meaning of integration and harmony. And the aspiration and expectations that the artist tries to realize the cosmic dream go well together in harmony with the centerline of composition, warm and cold colors, and yin and yang.
In quantum mechanics, they say there is only the empty space when the very well fine split molecule, atom, and nucleus are enlarged again and again. It is scientifically proved that even though particles of space are separated far away, they communicate and share the feelings. In this point, it means that particles remember the history of time. “Returning to the pure feelings” is the linguistic implication of Sunny Kim’s painting. I hope you dream of returning to pure feelings from the emptiness in the expanded space of the macro-universe and the protoplasmic space of the micro-molecules and nucleus. This is the core of “Cosmic Dream.”
작품 ‘Cosmic Dream’ 09에서 10 시리즈를 보면 자연에 드리운 절대자 하나님의 영적형상을 상징한다. 가변적 환영의 모습이 밤하늘의 별처럼 다가오는 이미지에서 말씀으로 존재하는 진리의 메시지를 전하고 있다. 매우 절제된 무채색위에 약간의 난색을 깔아 점진적 확장의 세계를 암시한다. 이점이 순수감정으로 회귀하게 만드는 따뜻함이며 정화의 세계로 이어진다. ‘Cosmic Dream’ 11 시리즈는 원색의 바탕과 억제된 터치의 결합이 비극에서 긍정의 힘을 얻게 한다. 그리고 ‘Cosmic Dream’ 13 시리즈에서는 통합과 조화의 의미와 함께 사상으로서의 우주를 합일하고 구도의 중심선, 난색과 한색, 음양의 조화로 ‘Cosmic Dream’을 실현하려는 작가적 열망과 기대가 함께 어우러지고 있다.
양자역학에서 잘게 쪼개고 쪼개진 분자, 원자, 핵을 확대하고 확대해서 들여다보면 텅 빈 공간이라 고한다. 공간인 입자를 나누어 서로 멀리 떨어져 두어도 소통하고 느낌을 공유한다는 것을 과학적으로 증명하였다. 이점에서 입자는 시간의 역사를 기억하고 있다는 것을 의미한다. “순수감정으로의 회귀”는 Sunny Kim 그림의 언어적 함축이다. 거시적인 우주의 팽창된 공간과 미시적인 분자, 핵의 원형질인 공간에서 비움으로 인한 순수감정으로의 회귀를 꿈꾸길 기대한다. 이점이 ‘Cosmic Dream’의 핵심이라 하겠다.
Artist’s Statement
During the last 10 years, I have titled all of my exhibitions, “Cosmic Dreams.” I am drawn to images of the vast universe, the heavens and the meaning of what lies in the spiritual realm beyond the physical world we can see. My paintings may appear abstract
at first; however, they are expressions of cosmic formations. Each canvas represents and symbolizes movements and colors of heavenly bodies and their celestial patterns in oppositiona state of both chaos and order.
I was born in Seoul, Korea, and I cannot remember a time when I was not creating art. My father was a dentist by profession, but he was also an Artist who won national recognition in Korea. Because of my artistic abilities, I was exempt from taking the entrance examinations that were required to attend the most prestigious arts high school in Korea, as well as Seoul National University.
I quickly established a strong reputation and became well known for my art. My classes in Korea, and later at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York City, required me to create all forms of art, including painting, photography, graphic design and fashion design. However, my focus was, and continues to be, in exploring the universe through art media.
My heart lies in trying to express infinity on a finite canvas through colors, patterns and artistic expressions of space, energy, power and speed.
Jackson Pollack is one of my favorite artists and inspirations. I often emulate his drip techniques, not to radically break the rules of paint as he did, but to use the drippy, spotted formations of smaller areas of paint to convey a sense of a colorful universe filled with speeding meteors, blinking light, moving planets, brilliant stars and celestial spheres seen from enormous distances.
I am constantly striving to find my own way to express my feelings and emotions on canvas and continue to paint with relentless passion for my work.
