GLASGOW.- In the exhibition Echoes, Kim’s visual language is seen in his paintings and beautifully crafted films. Drawn from an image bank relating to popular culture and personal narratives, Kim offers a reflection on his past and present relationship to his home town of Jeju, and Scotland, the country where he now lives and works.

Echoes Is an audio-visual portrait of the artist; experiencing two cultures, one of birth and one of choice, choosing to remain in Scotland following the completion of his Masters at The Glasgow School of Art. In this film Kim is exploring histories that collide with the present. In particular is the artist's own personal family story of anxiety and trauma related to the Jeju Uprising (Apr 3 1948-54) following WWII. Echoes is a reminder of how these events continue to impact on subsequent generations. By evoking cultural heritage related to both locations through time, place and memory, the future becomes a reimagined mix of history, science, fantasy and hyper realism. These two different cultures, as experienced by the artist, are clashing with the homogenisation of our increasing global world. The film Echoes becomes a new site for the artist to explore the potential of cultural hybrid futures.

In the film, both locations are experiencing the stark results of thawing permafrost. This change is revealing the past histories of both caves; Darangshi Cave on Jeju Island, and the Bone Caves in Assynt, Scotland. Echoes captures Kim’s journey to these locations mapping his dual experience as a South Korean artist making his new home in Scotland.

Occupied during the last Ice Age, the Bone Caves in the north west Highlands of Scotland are a source of mystery and folklore. Formed over 200,000 years ago they tell us about slow geological time and the lives of large arctic animals that once roamed the Highlands. In contrast Darangshi Cave in Jeju, was discovered to be the site of a mass human grave: hidden for over 50 years. It is the resting place of victims of the Jeju Uprising. Echoes incorporates this challenging historical event, omnipresent within the lives of families of Kim’s native island. Kim is borrowing from these vast geological and historical events. The artist is drawing each cave system closer, the past continuing to be felt in the present.

Kim is a recent MFA graduate from The Glasgow School of Art, and a recipient of the Nottingham Trent University Exchange Programme, School of Art & Design. He received a BFA in Painting, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, KR

Solo exhibitions: Echoes, 2024 (upcoming) Patricia Fleming Gallery, Glasgow; Ramifying Frost, 2023, Goethe-Institut, Glasgow; UK. Two-person and group exhibitions include: 2022: The Auto-Buzz of Hybrid Kim and Rabbit, Intermedia Gallery of Centre for Contemporary Art, CCA, Glasgow, UK; KCC Open Call UK X Germany; Begin Again, the Korean Embassy Cultural Centre in London, and Berlin, UK and Germany ; Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Berlin and Paris Germany and France; Happy Tide Will Flood Again, 5 Florence St, Glasgow, UK; NOWNESS Experiments: Yellow Fever, NOWNESS ASIA, Hong Kong; Carapelli for Art 2021, Online, Florence, Italy, Ingram Prize 2020 Finalist Show, Online, Smartify app, London, UK; 2020: CIRCA Class of 2020, Piccadilly Lights in Piccadilly Circus, London, UK; 2019: Aesthetica Short Film Festival, King's Manor, Friargate Theater, York, UK; MFA Interim Show, Glue Factory, Glasgow, UK