Sung Hwan Kim at Tate Modern’s ‘The Tanks’

Washing Brain and Corn, Sung Hwan Kim, 2010, video still
© Sung Hwan Kim

The Tanks, Tate Modern’s new space, with artist Sung Hwan Kim.

Sung Hwan Kim at Tate Modern’s ‘The Tanks’ Korean artist Sung Hwan Kim presents the first specially commissioned installation to be unveiled in The Tanks, Tate Modern’s new galleries permanently dedicated to performance and film. The exhibition is supported by Sotheby’s and runs from 18 July to 28 October 2012.]]>

Source: Tate Modern

Kim is known for his interdisciplinary work, incorporating installation, video, performance, music, light and drawing. He interweaves personal history, fantasy, rumour, politics and culture to create a work that responds to the unique architecture of The Tanks.

Kim’s unique way of story-telling plunges visitors into a fantastical world of optical illusions and doubling of imagery that draws on a rich history of performance and film, as he collects and collages encounters, sounds, sculptures and images from his changing homes of Seoul, Amsterdam and New York.

Kim has divided one of Tate Modern’s former oil tanks into two highly atmospheric rooms where light and screened images bounce off mirrors, reflective material and walls. Both contain architectural stage-sets that act as platforms for four of the artist’s films. In the smaller of the two rooms we see From the Commanding Heights… 2007, a film which intersperses a story set within the renowned South Korean Hyundai apartment complex with that of a rumoured affair between an actress and a dictator. In the second room we see a further three films – Dog Video 2006, Washing Brain and Corn 2010, andTemper Clay 2012 – each presented within distinct and carefully constructed spaces.

About the artist
Sung Hwan Kim was born in 1975 in Seoul, South Korea, and lives and works in New York. He initially studied architecture at Seoul National University, followed by a BA in Mathematics and Art, Williams College, Williamstown (2000), followed by a MSc in Visual Studies at MIT and a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam (2004–5). Recent solo exhibitions include Line Wall, Kunsthalle Basel (2011); From the Commanding Heights, Queens Museum, New York (2011); Golden Times, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, (2010) and Witte de With, Centre for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2009).

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