Cindy Ji Hye Kim approaches her practice as a form of writing. It is a pertinent strategy in that text generates images that remain unseen and the tension between the perceptible and the hidden is precisely what interests her. Her figures are metaphorical verbs that convey movement and action. They are often painted in impossible contraptions, negotiating the confined space of the pictorial plane with obtrusive scaffolds, sets, and other disturbing objects. These punctuating elements restrict the breadth of their movement but they also delimit the boundaries of their existence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These works, particularly her series Characters<\/em>, testify to a concern for structural systems that regulate and constrain human experience. In this regard, psychoanalysis places language as the absolute example. To convey this, Kim adopted two distinctive techniques: a grisaille palette and elegantly carved stretchers bars. Grisaille is a technique that makes use of monochromatic tones of greys to create forms. It is generally utilized as a preliminary surface that is subsequently covered with coloured pigments. In Kim\u2019s case, it is left bare, as if one had lifted the coloured veil of the painting to expose its underlying structure. This is reinforced by the silk organza surface that she often paints on, which allows a certain partial transparency that supports the painted surface all the while revealing the shadow cast by the carved stretcher bars beneath it. These are often designed to include a repertoire of skeletal imagery: spines, femurs, fibulae, or rib cages, all beautifully carved in wood. The overall result recalls the universe of chimera and dreams, unconscious spaces we access from within our bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cindy Ji Hye Kim is interested in what pictures can do; in their power of affect. She locates points of tension, work- ing aptly between negative and positive space, between the visible and the hidden. These types of impossible inconsistencies permeate the work. It is the understanding of painting as a metaphoric text to render a message that can only be carried via an image, and dissolving as soon as one attempts to translate it into words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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