Velvet 

January 20th ~ February 6th  2023 / New York City, NY, USA

Doi Kim: Velvet

Doi Kim’s solo exhibition, Velvet presents works that contemplate our complex relationship with personal and collective traumas through metaphorical storytelling. This exhibition is inspired by the velvet covering a deer’s antlers: a thin layer of skin concentrated with blood vessels and nerves that carry nutrients necessary for the antler’s growth and protection. A deer’s antlers are used primarily for defensive measures, but they are also a symbol of strength and dominance, a sign of the deer’s hierarchical standing in their social group. If a deer is malnourished, injured, or stressed, blood drains out of the antlers, and the velvet layer dries and peels away, revealing the mature antler underneath.

The exhibition invites viewers to imagine moments when their own “velvet” is “shed” in traumatic experiences. For instance, her painting Antler (2022) depicts the bleeding antler, shedding velvet and revealing the hardened core. It provides an entry point that leaves a clue to reflect upon how various levels of traumatic experience impact us. Kim’s virtual landscapes, depicted in animation, printmaking, and painting, invite viewers to look at personal and collective trauma differently. Her work seeks to connect various levels of “macroscopic” histories with present-day lives, to embody new perspectives on generational pain, and to consider how new insights on trauma might transform our present and future.

Velvet encourages viewers to re-envision the power dynamics of their personal lives and the broader geopolitical landscape, establishing a relationship between past and present from an individual’s perspective.

Venue
ChaShaMa Space
266 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018

Exhibition Dates
January 20 - February 6, 2023


Sponsored by ChaShaMa
https://chashama.org


Curation: Doi Kim
Coordinator: Jiwoo Kim
Editor: Media Farzin
Poster design: Doi Kim
Space design: Sooin Kim, Doi Kim
Installation: Doi Kim, Juhye Lim, Edmund Lee, Joony Kim
Documentation: Doi Kim, Madeline Mancini



Special thanks to ChaShaMa, Media Farzin, Sooin Kim, Juhye Lim, Edmund Lee, Joony Kim, JiYoung Kim, Madeline Mancini, and Felix Harlan.

Doi Kim: Velvet

The Hound of the Baskervilles (2018-2022)

Entering the exhibition, the video work The Hound of the Baskervilles (2018-2022) shows a loop of the image of the life of a hound-like creature. The detective novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Conan Arthur Doyle, begins with the story of the monster dog that kills the successor of the Baskerville family. In my work, the hound is a metaphor for transgenerational trauma. I am also inspired by the Fukushima nuclear disaster and its ramifications.


The image used in the video refers to a stylized form of medieval painting that was also used in Giotto's frescoes, which depicts events from different periods in one image, not a scene that takes place at one point. In the video, a four-foot monster appears  – moving somewhere – and a couple of monsters and their offspring stare at the opposite side as they reminisce. The last scene connects to the first scene and repeats, like the unpromising wait that half-life for radioactive decay requires.


The infinite loop of the images expresses the time and space of an endless loop of suspended life, reproducing death itself. My aim is to propose clues about how transgenerational trauma is inherited and affects the descendants.

The Fifth Child (2020)

The Fifth Child (2020), named after Doris Lessing's 1988 novel, is a series of five lithograph prints. Each print depicts a speculative landscape in which an embryo faces the trauma of former generations while they are in their mother's womb. It also visualizes the birth of a character who can bring chaos to current social situations, a bold new identity who can challenge conservative tellings of history. 


The Fifth Child (2020) was inspired by my encounters with the cultural landscape of New York in 2019 when I first moved to the city. I observed that historic trauma forms the basis of many collective identities and shapes the city's geopolitical landscape. It made me think of how each individual aligns or builds their values amid the environment of intense interaction.


In Lessing's novel, The Fifth Child, Ben, the dysfunctional fifth child of the family, gives pain to his parents from pregnancy, eventually destroying their conservative fantasies of a perfect traditional family. Reflecting upon the novel and by taking on the role of an outsider, I explore the individual and collective experiences through the eyes of an unborn being, envisioning a speculative scenario of the birth of a character who can bring chaos to current social situations.Each lithograph depicts the stage of development of an embryo, visualized using botanical and anatomical images:

The Fifth Child 1 shows an image of umbilical cords.

The Fifth Child 2 illustrates the formation of internal organs.

The Fifth Child 3 implies the formation of a fictional character affected by transgenerational trauma by depicting the image of DNA structure.

The Fifth Child 4 visualizes the formation of a fetus's muscle inside the mother's womb.

The Fifth Child 5 illustrates an imaginary being ready to break out of the womb and be born into the unknown world.


The trauma of the former generation is expressed as intense light, inspired by the dramatic use of chiaroscuro in baroque paintings. 

Altogether, the exhibition “Velvet” challenges viewers to reflect on their own experiences while inviting them to look at trauma in a different light, with curiosity. In this way, the exhibition provides a unique opportunity to connect with both history and the present moment in order to find a new perspective on deep-seated pain and its effects and gain insight into how it might affect our present and future. Through this process of reflection and contemplation, Velvet encourages viewers to re-envision the power dynamics of their personal lives as well as the broader geopolitical landscape, establishing a relationship between past and present.