[WHO]
Wednesday Kim is an interdisciplinary artist and a co-founder of De:Formal Online Gallery. She is from Seoul, South Korea and is currently based out of Alaska. Kim works with a mixture of analog and digital media including 3D animation, video, performance, installation, print, and sculpture. Her work is informed by personal experiences and human psychology; she derives imagery from nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and childhood trauma. Furthermore, she portrays the absurdity of information-saturated contemporary life in a surrealist fashion through wordplay, Wikipedia, voyeurism, and witticism.
[WHAT]
My video practice is informed by my childhood traumas perpetrated by predatory men. These traumas now manifest as intrusive thoughts, which have become obsessions in my work. My works are like the world refracted through the prism of a schizophrenic mind. The hidden forces of the subconscious mind blend with traumatic memories to form bizarre images, drawn from daydreams and nightmares. These images blend fantasy with lived experience through 2D and 3D animation and green screen performance. My current work, The Aesthetic of Being Disappeared , is a response to my move from an urban center to rural isolation. This has led to my life being conducted mostly online and the video series deals with how Internet addiction affects the human mind. The aesthetic of the work is informed by Internet culture, particularly from the randomness of Amazon shopping. I look up product names I find on Amazon using Urban Dictionary and draw from those nonsensical definitions, many of which are sexual. Although works are surreal on their surface, there are also small, surprising details that reward close viewing. Viewers may experience my work like a game of hide and seek: sometimes I am hiding in my work; other times, I chase viewers forcing them to see disturbing images. I invite viewers to be voyeurs of my personal experiences, so that viewers can reflect on their own traumas. Yes, you are invited.
Nocturnal sounds / 00:03:58 / 2020 Mothers.
I am quivering, my hands tightened fearfully upon the one I am holding. At the nighttime lots of thoughts came to me, mostly intrusive thoughts. Sometimes they are too Loud. Repetitive and monotonous voices (in your mind). These monotonous noises are repeated and transformed into obsessive prayers. Unmistakably, It’s a distressing sound.
Stay with the trouble / 00:01:17 / 2020
Produced during covid19 era Fear of being without a smartphone alert !! We are wired to have feelings. If we express these feelings in off-putting ways, this wiring can invite disconnect in relationships.
“The basic purpose of the mobile phone is to allow people to be in two different places to communicate instantly, eliminating the human anxiety about loneliness,”
I am a performer in this game
The aesthetics of being disappeared part 1. / 00:03:31 /2019
Never ending isolation. Awkwardness in social life. Relay on online. Feels more real in online. Hey, I rather be online. The gap between social media and real life. No internet / No love. Cc:virtual life / Bcc:real life.
Opaque Romance / video painting / 2019
Blending fantasy and virtuality with everyday life. An idea of apophenia occurred in between interpersonal relationships. Misperception involving an obscure spur being perceived as something distinct between us, humans.
House work / on-going project / 2018
Humanizes the net.art medium by dealing with themes of motherhood and housework. It sort of mimics the way motherhood is commercialized in contemporary capitalist society through a constant barrage of information and visual stimuli. There is also a great commentary on the clash between the role of the female body as mother and as sexual object.
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