Kimsooja
1957 - present
Photograph of Kimsooja, courtesy of the artist
   Place of Birth:
Taegu
Nationality:
South Korean
Phonetic Spelling:
kihm soo jah Work Type/Media:
Multimedia (electronic, digital, video, film), Performance Art
, Textiles and clothing
Artistic Role(s):
Installation Artist, Mixed Media Artist
, Performance Artist, Sewer, Textile Artist
Style:
Other
Artist's Statement:
Cloth and LifeWe are wrapped in cotton cloth at birth, we wear it until we die, and we are again wrapped in it for burial. Especially in Korea, we use cloth as a symbolic material on important occasions such as coming of age ceremonies, weddings, funerals, and rites for ancestors. Therefore, cloth is thought to be more than a material, being identified with the body—that is, as a container for the spirit. When a person dies, his family burns the clothes and sheets he used. This may have the symbolic meaning of sending his body and spirit to the sky, the world of the unknown. When I look back over my more than twenty years of handling bedcovers, I feel that I have always been performing, guided by piles of cloth I have lived among. What in the world have I stitched and patched? What have I tied up in bundles? When will the journey of my needle end, my silkworm unwrap its flesh? Will it in the end, slough off its skin? Will the bundles with no destination find their way to go?Statement courtesy of Kimsooja
Place(s) of Residence:
New York
Where Trained/Schools:
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France (1984-1985)
Hong-IK University, Seoul, South Korea (1980-1984)
Related Visual Artists:
unknown
Fellowships, grants and awards:
Individual Artist Award, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York, NY, USA (2007)
Anonymous Was a Woman Award, Anonymous Was A Woman Foundation, New York, NY, USA (2002)
Artist-in-Residence, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY, USA (1992-1993)
Earliest exhibition:
Breath Show, Growrich Gallery, Seoul, Korea (1979)
NMWA exhibition(s):
Preserving the Past, Securing the Future: Donations of Art, 1987-1997
Ten Contemporary Korean Women Artists
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© 2008-2012 National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. 
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