Interview: Amarildo Topalis
Kyuin Shim is a low profile Korean artist who adores playing with words and expressing himself through his work. A gentle personality with an original and fascinating digital artwork.
How is the life of an artist in Seoul nowadays?
I’ve moved to Seoul a few years ago, the city where I’m from is called “Ulsan” (*industrial city in east-south coast). I like creating activities, however I’ve never made money out of my work. Therefore I am doing something else for a living. And I prefer online than offline, so to be honest I wouldn’t know well about life of artists in Seoul.
What does the series “Black-Black” mean for you and why does it have two meanings in your own language?
Like most of my series, it’s one that expresseses my emotions. Only luckily it is the first work that many people liked.
(흑 means black in Chinese character which we use also in Korean, and can be used to describe sound of crying, I would rather ask why he chose this title as I translated here below )
It’s sort of playing with words. “ 흑흑 (Black-Black)” is α sound of crying. On the other hand it’s also one I created. “흑 (Black)” means black color. It gives emphasized feeling by placing it two times.
I guess I like this kind of playing with words. And coincidently it fitted with the subject. Since pouring down black liquid resembles crying sound and all the objects are black, I though it fitted.
In the series “Small Place” everything is white, did anything change within you?
I didn’t put meaning especially to color in this work. That’s why I chose white. I wanted to emphasise the meaning of the object’s form not the color.
How do you pass from one stage to another (artistically), what are the stimuli for the transition?
Working constantly and continuously in the style I want. I always wanted to find my own style. And I also wanted my works to be popular. I tried to copy somebody’s works who is popular, but it didn’t work. So I gave up pupularity of my works. And then I started to make them the way I wanted spontaneously. Having looked at mine, it seems that I found my style vaguely.
Another thing is to acquire techology to express. I think my capability has been enhanced a lot since I learned 3D skill.
Will your next series be anthropocentric or will we see something neutral in a surrealistic context?
I wouldn’t know. Because I don’t really work with a set idea. I do have a few ideas but I can’t guarantee when they will be made since I’m very lazy. If the next one is a new series and not the extension of the current one, it will be one of those ideas.
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