Louis Jeong Soo Kim

Louis_Kim
Photo by Caleb Savage

Artist Statement

I can’t eat that much so I split a roasted chick, meant to be a whole meal, and make two meals out of it. I grew to realize that I might be splitting the chicken only because I like the sensation of splitting it though. When I shove my hands into the crispy skin, I can feel the hot steam and mouthwatering juice coming out from inside. Using a knife and looking at its cleanly bisected profiles may be as satisfactory, but I like feeling the warmth with my hands. That is what I like about making sculpture. I like seeing wood glue sticking out and bent wood trying to unbend. It’s pleasing to see something defiant, gradually giving in. Looking back in relation to my creative tendencies, my works have been sadistic: iron maiden, triangle horse, and a structure to suffocate an IcyHot bottle. I try to make quietly creepy objects like children’s shoes found in a trash can.

Home Depot is a great place. Their sad orange logo and prosaic display of home improvement wares make me feel sorry for them, but having that sympathy makes me feel like an artistically sharper person. My favorite sections in Home Depot are the light and plant sections. Sample light bulbs that will never get to be turned off until their filaments burn out, and peace lilies that are slowly rotting among the heartier cacti are pure romance. The romanticism I get from them is not saccharine (like Chopin’s ballads), nor quixotic (like Liszt’s rhapsodies). Their patheticness is everyday and real: utterly palpable. Home Depot is full of these savory moments. Looking at seventeen oddly textured outdoor rugs hanging off the wall, or standing underneath seventeen semi-gloss toilet lids is kind of sublime. Unlike the completeness of an artwork, objects at Home Depot are vulnerable and raw, and I take longer time to digest them mentally and emotionally.

Bio

Kim was born and raised in Korea until 2004. He graduated Quaker high school in NY in 2009, and began his BFA degree at NYU. His lazy nature got him into conceptual art and classical music composition that does not involve any hands-on building, but he soon found joy in building after making a display case for the anime figurines he was secretly collecting. He was involved in various group shows: Loonytoons (2010), Torture Machines (2011), Days with Frog and Toad (2015, featured on Artnet), and Missing an Angel (2015). He started making furniture on the side to alter his own lifestyle. He is currently working at Volk Furniture and is going to Art Center in CA for MA, furniture design.

Interview with the artist (PDF): Louis Kim

An Awning and Its Fellow, 2015 MDF, MDO, Dowel (20x25x15) and (20x10x3)
An Awning and Its Fellow, 2015
MDF, MDO, Dowel
(20 x 25 x 15 inches) and (20 x 10 x 3 inches)
H2O, 2015 Icy Hot, Plexiglass, Poplar (8x10x3)
H2O, 2015
Icy Hot, Plexiglass, Poplar
8 x 10 x 3 inches
Terrain2go, 2015 Carpet, MDF, Pine, Paint (8x32x2)
Terrain2go, 2015
Carpet, MDF, Pine, Paint
8 x 32 x 2 inches
Duck, 2015 Iron rods, Pine (23x28x22)
Duck, 2015
Iron rods, Pine
23 x 28 x 22 inches
Moving Out. 2015 Book, Cigarette, MDF, MDO, Paint (15x23x3)
Moving Out. 2015
Book, Cigarette, MDF, MDO, Paint
15 x 23 x 3 inches