KAJIN KIM

Inhabiting the Interface

October 15th - November 11th 2022

Swivel Gallery is pleased to present Inhabiting the Interface, the first U.S. solo exhibition of Korean artist Kajin Kim. Consisting of a range of multimedia works, Inhabiting the Interface is a commentary on our ever-changing society, especially in terms of the internet and media inundation. It investigates how humans relate to one another and to themselves in this new age, where information travels faster than our abilities to process and cope with it. Rapid technological developments have created somewhat of a social paradox; on one hand, humans have become closer to each other through these channels, forging connections to new people and developing said connections in new ways. On the other hand, our lives are now filtered through the internet and social media, contributing to parasocial relationships and feelings of isolation.

Interface, by definition, means the place at which independent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other. We are usually accustomed to viewing walls as blockages, preventing us from experiencing another space. But the interface is both a meeting ground and barrier, a shared boundary, forming an overlapping state through connection between fragmented things and creating a site for their encounter. Kim explores this space in her new works. Shared Connection consists of microscopes embedded within peephole apertures. These apertures contain abstract, organism-like imagery, with colorful elements intertwining and colliding, opening a portal to discovery and rerouting the viewer’s perspective both through that space and within themselves. In Meditated Touch, silicone forms are sewn into the wall, binding the permeable to the permanent. Lit from behind, the organic forms become poetic gestures that illuminate us, as if our own contents hold the same amount of grace.

The artist links these shared commonalities of walls, boundaries, and space to our own skin, yet another paradoxical concept. Our skin is a confine that divides the interior and exterior of a body, a parameter that creates the boundary of the self, but at the same time, a membrane which allows the touch and connection of another being. Kim’s overlap of images, light, and space creates an imaginary coexistence of here and there, of different times that are far apart, yet each connects to each other, things which are separate, but also carrying traces of the body in coexistence. In her Habitable Dialogue series, the wall acts as a connective tissue rather than a boundary, a site where different forms of intercession and transformation can take place. It is similar in this way to a memory that does not tangibly exist, but is intensely felt internally – even if no one is here, the body is anticipated and implied. Like a form of membrane, the interface holds the potential for activating new types of relations, achieving a simultaneous separation and merge.

Throughout the past few years, although we have realized a deeper sense of life, a certain absence and isolation still permeates. Kim’s moving images, printed matter, and installations explore the complexities in the contemporary experience of physical disembodiment, seeking to create placeholders for someone who is not here but is somewhere else, waiting to collide. Her work is a deep rumination on how, both in virtual and physical space, we as humans yearn for connection and clarity without always being able to find it.

Kajin Kim (b. 1993, Seoul, Korea) is a recent Fulbright Graduate of Hunter College MFA, and lives and works in Seoul, Korea. She utilizes moving images, printed matter, and installation to explore the complexities of mediation in the contemporary experience of physical disembodiment. Disparate projections, transparent prints, iridescent surfaces and screens resonate with each other in her installations, creating an environment where images are touched, reflected, and looked through. Kim made the Dean’s List at the Paris College of Art in 2015 while on an Outbound Exchange from Hongik University.