Artist Ru Kim explores 'entanglement through escape' in 1st Seoul solo exhibition

Ru Kim sits at the installation for the "Ecotone: Capacity for Escape" (2022) exhibition, Oct. 1. / Courtesy of Yang Seungwook

By Sarah Buhler

"Ecotone: Capacity for Escape" (2022) is the second solo exhibition and first solo exhibition in Seoul for artist Ru Kim.

The exhibition opened on Oct. 1 with a performance-activation of the installation on display at the exhibition space, Post Territory Ujeongguk. Flooded in blue and green lighting, the performance titled "Interpermeations" featured Kim reading an original text into microphones interspersed throughout the installation stage while two performers, Shin Chaeun, a contemporary-trained dancer, and Nicholas Julian Brahim, a trained Tango dancer, interacted with one another in their own respective styles and with soft, malleable, serpent-like costume sculptures produced by the artist. The text being read served as a type of love letter addressed to the serpent, unfolding over the sounds of a live performance by musician And Rose Peacock. The serpent is an overlying theme as its Korean translation "baem" is a homonym for "interpermeation."

Ru Kim, right, looks on during the opening performance "Interpermeations" for the exhibition "Ecotone: Capacity for Escape" (2022), at Post Territory Ujeongguk, Oct. 1. / Courtesy of Yang Seungwook

The term "ecotone" is defined as a transitional area "where two different biological communities meet and integrate" according to the exhibition text written by Lee Jieon. The 35-minute performance evoked feelings and concepts of longing, desire, transformation and violence, highlighted by the gripping live electronic music soundtrack.

"Ecotone: Capacity for Escape" is a "conjugation of the bond of [Kim's] past artworks and practices" looking to the feminist theory of hydrofeminism, a term coined by cultural theorist Astrida Neimanis. Hydrofeminism views water as the facilitator of our transcorporeal existence, interconnecting all human and non-human species, emphasizing the intrinsic relationship between nature and culture.

Kim took from this line of thinking to create scripts of conversation between four different bodies of water spanning multiple cities and continents, at times eventually merging as one, to share memories and feelings around experiences of violence continued throughout the hydrological cycle.

The four bodies of water act as characters throughout the exhibition represented as 'Water' from the Han River, the Mediterranean Sea, Ilgwang Beach located near the Kori Nuclear Power Plant in Busan and various locations in Portugal where lithium mines are beginning to open. Each of these sites is significant as points tied to Kim's past works, with pieces having been developed with site-specific research into new contexts in relation to exhibition locations, building upon the intention of interconnectedness.

Visitors are given the possibility of interacting with the work, "activating" the installment by speaking into the microphones, ad-libbing or, if they wish, reading from the scripts provided on printed translucent tracing paper, harkening to the draped fabrics of various transparencies hanging throughout the exhibit with the script affixed in Korean, French and English ― the artist's three spoken languages. The space articulates the memory of the opening performance as pre-recorded fragments of the performance text are triggered through sounds picked up by each of the three microphones. Echoes accompany the wake of whoever may be present, similar perhaps to the reverbing sounds one may hear underwater.

A scene from Ru Kim's solo exhibition "Ecotone: Capacity for Escape" (2022) at Post Territory Ujeongguk, Oct. 1. / Courtesy of Yang Seungwook

Mirror-image sculpted foam logos of familiar corporate institutions discussed by Waters are placed amidst the walls and strung along with Manila rope, which has been used by seafarers for its physical quality of growing stronger when wet, as well as having other historical context, conjuring a certain dramatic theatricality in the space.

Abstract symbols reminiscent of powerful maelstroms such as tsunamis or whirlpools are evoked through the paintings on the white fabric also hung and intertwined by the rope. These are juxtaposed against the mental images of standard representations of the sea which is usually viewed as calm, and namely feminine. In the interplay of layering symbolisms and artistic gestures breaking away therefrom, Kim utilizes various methods of sculpture and installation to focus on the details that place the reproduced objects in different relations to power. These details throughout the exhibition are used to create various entry points of thought and contemplation for those who visit.

While "Ecotone: Capacity for Escape" uses water as a means to communicate a deeper understanding of Earth's shared terrestrial realities, at the heart of the exhibition is a way for Kim to question and explore how community and conversations are built through art and its varying permutations as an "escape" to navigate their way "home".

"Ecotone: Capacity for Escape" runs through Oct. 16 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Post Territory Ujeongguk in the Mapo District of Seoul. Visit ru-kim.com or ujeongguk.com for more information.

Sarah Buhler lives and works in Seoul and volunteers with the curative collective, Crazy Multiply.