김은신 · Grace Eunshin Kim (b.1980, Seoul). Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
When I was a child, I liked drawing after the images of animals (usually horses) printed on the wall calendars. Their form and shape looked good to my eyes and made me want to copy and create something similar. That was my earliest memory of aesthetic experience; I learned that there was a deep satisfaction coming from the process of observing and creating things that are pleasing to look at.
What I do as a grown-up painter hasn't changed much fundamentally when I think about it. I still try to draw and paint things that look good to me in order to have that satisfaction again and again. The difference between the childhood and now is that I learned more things about myself and the world I inhabit, and the accumulated memory and sensations are being redefined and renewed. This helps me set a new standard for what is “good looking” to me. I find the structural balance found in medieval and early Renaissance paintings meaningful and beautiful. The figures in certain poses/gestures and expressions create interesting and complex forms. Abstract composition is visually so astonishing to look at. So I try to make paintings that can include all these elements to create something that is fun to look at.
In my paintings, figures are painted in an imagined time and place, clothed and equipped with possessions suggesting the kind of activities and predicaments they inhabit. Some of them are loosely based on readable narratives (either biblical or autobiographical), but most of them were created without intention to tell stories; what figures and animals in my works communicate is not clearly knowable to myself and to viewers. Yet they create a certain mood, convey certain emotions, and bring back certain memories. I enjoy looking at paintings by artists like Piero della Francesca or Morandi although I do not always understand or have capacity to name what I think (or feel) when I look at them. I want my paintings to provide such a visual experience where viewers can linger and delight in ambiguity, mystery, and humour in the painted world without knowing what is observed.