Suhyun Kim

Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Artist statement

A plant's forms, patterns, and colors are not merely aesthetic. They are the result of countless acts repeated and accumulated over time—spreading leaves toward light, extending roots toward water. The shapes can be strange, even grotesque, but that strangeness is the trace of an organism persisting against its conditions. The fictional organisms I draw and paint carry this same tenacity—as do I. At some point I realized that the social standards around me could not fully explain who I was. The gap between the self defined through external perception and the self I have built by sensing and thinking through my body grew too wide. Within that tension, I kept searching for ways to sustain myself. At the same time, I longed for a place where external measures no longer mattered; somewhere I could let my guard down. The habits I created—steady routines, small daily rituals, relentless studio movements—were the minimum structures I built to hold myself together, and a way of cutting the world down to a size I could bear. Within this small structure, I place myself. I tend to myself, give my whole heart to the few things around me, and lean on them. The forms in my compositions are traces and accumulations of acts I have performed daily. Each day's trajectory overlaps into form, and by leaving traces on the canvas I mark a place of my own.

Artwork