The artist’s eccentric experiments turn toward objects. An lron in the Form of a Radio, a kettle in the Form of an lron and a Radio in the Form of a Kettle presents, just as its pun-like title suggests, an iron shaped like a radio, a kettle shaped like an iron, and a radio shaped like a kettle arranged side by side. These three objects, cleverly dismantled, inverted, and recombined, betray the common sense we hold about everyday things. Positioned between reality and imagination, between common sense and nonsense, the objects prompt us to question whether what we see truly coincides with what it is, and how the identity of the things we perceive can be defined in the first place.
A hammer becomes pregnant, while the leaves of plants that appear to grow each day are in fact collaged fragments from newspapers and magazines. A white floating form that looks like a swan turns out to be nothing more than a piece of Styrofoam, and we eventually realize it even takes the shape of an arm imitating a swan. As if mocking our innocent faith in the world, the artist proposes that we “open our eyes” within a bewildering reality through instinctive and playful forms of expression.
The struggles and emotional burdens of an artist wrestling with uncertain ideas and meanings are condensed in the tutorial-style video Painting "Yellow Scream", which demonstrates how to create an abstract painting. In the video—reminiscent of the gentle television painter Bob Ross—the artist himself appears and demonstrates the mixing of several shades of yellow. With each hue he releases a different, somewhat comical scream as he applies brushstrokes to the canvas. “Ah! Aah! Aagh!” With each cry, layers of yellow accumulate until the painting ultimately resolves into an abstract composition.
Filled with Kim Beom’s distinctive wit and humor, the exhibition calls to mind Descartes’ methodic doubt, which demanded that everything be questioned. What ultimately remains beyond doubt, however, is a single thing: the self who doubts everything. Seeing Kim Beom let out a yellow scream brings this to mind once again. For Kim, who remained wary of familiarity and persistently questioned the authenticity of reality, the trembling Adam’s apple of the “self that screams” must have been an undeniable and truthful resonance.
This painful yet surprisingly pleasurable process of inquiry—moving between reality and imagination, common sense and nonsense—is a journey undertaken together with Kim Beom. His art offers us new perspectives and opens up fresh horizons of the world. Now we may transform into anything—into everything—ALL AT ONCE.
