Kim, Jihee, Laughter and Tragedy  

                                                                                          Jean-Louis Poitevin (French art critic) 

Faces 

At first glance, the works of Kim, Jihee seem to bring us back to the beautiful moment of our childhood or youth, Faces behind all sort of large spectacles catch our sights and remind us of playing with fire and the games in our childhood.

 

But as soon as we turn our gaze, our eyes are caught again by unfamiliar figures and these become visual in all mystique.

 

Something revealed on canvas evokes our curiosity and makes us to taste the surprise but in the end it kindle the fire of fears in our minds. When watching closely these faces, you will realize they are no men, neither women. Even with well defined outline and shape of the faces, you will meet with the reality where you can get only obscure explanation about human race.

 

The questions like these are thrown at us as if they spring out from the canvas. What we are watching is not just the face nor the looks we face everyday. The face does not represent a person nor a certain individual. It is, rather, a way to body forth one cross-section of the embodied world. The faces are not connected to any body. This figure is nobody. It is mere realization of the existence which agitate us .

 

Smile and Slogan

 

Human is born with ability to interpret the facial expressions of others. This ability is most important in our lives. It is because of that our faces are our the most basic and instinctive appeal for the expression of our feelings, moods, sorrow and happiness.

 

For the figures of today's human who learn how to hide the real feelings and no longer expose the expression of true feelings, Kim, Jihee deliberately transforms the facial expressions. We only regulate our egos depending on external elements. These elements create different masks and we make all the efforts to fit our personalities into these masks. This is the tragedy of the modern times which is drawn at the tip of her brushes.

 

Modern people, with liveliness of expression, repress their egos with which they used to express their sentiment. The words which often appears in her works are inserted as background. They are more similar to advertising slogans rather than the foot note for sentiment.

 

The title of "Forced smile" can be found most often in her works. Each face bears smile which is excessively big for being natural. Besides, it has brace. It is the lustrous facial expression without liveliness. It looks like they are not watching nor gazing at anything even though their eyes are open. She sometimes draws the color of eyes differently. But Kim, Jihui increasingly draws big spectacles in the shape of heart or circle instead of eyes. Each lens bears the variety of icons. The lens is filled up with US Dollas & Korean Wons here and there, colorful dots and multicolored stripes or slogans of T-shirts. 

 

Each spectacle is the projector like screen. But it is difficult to decide whether the advertising thumbnails and showing of senseless desire which agitates the faces are what we are actually watching.

 

But what is not in doubt is that everything projected on this 'screen' destroys the eyes of figures and make us to have the terrible feeling of loneliness and the abandonment. Kim, Jihui make us face squarely the blind eyes through the symbol of social success and show us the truth of physical and social weakness related to most people in the modern times.

 

Monsters

 

The works of Kim, Jihee is talking about monsters. This is why we have to continue to watch her works. These gender-less beings are transformed into the figures in the myths through witty wigs depicted like aura.

These are not only the children of the 21st century but also the descendants of Syrinx or the satire against the Greek mythology which is the product of fiction. The figures which Kim, Jihui describes like the figures of Greek mythology have the horns and ears of lambs. Also like them we are here in this place in front of the contradictions of life in order to express our inner fears and expel them.

 

Are they really a monster? Are they really monsters? These figures, holding their own sin, shows us the path. The path we should follow from now on. Or the path we should never follow!

 

In her picture of the complete figure, the face with forced smile is drawn on the baby's body wearing a cloth inscribed with 'S' of Superman. Kim, Jihui keeps leaving us in doubt. The reduced earth merely like the planet of 'Little Prince' is left at the corner of the bed symbolizing the Earth. The monster with roses in one hand tells us, ridiculing us, that if we do not keep this, we will end like him. But if all of us become monsters, who will dare to tell us we have not chosen the correct path.

 

Colors and Hope

 

The mariage between cartoon and pop art, this is the world of Kim, Jihui's works. But if you want to understand the richness of the world of her works, you should go down to find the roots of Korean traditional culture. 

 

She has been painting since she was 6. She started oriental painting with teaching and encouragement of her teacher Oh, Kwanjin and has grown as an artist of the field in the public eye.

 

While learning the traditional subjects, she faced the limits of representation of the modern society and she realized that she should try a change in her raising questions.

 

She made up her mind to focus herself on the modern subject, still holding the string with the tradition. She wears colors on "Jangji", the traditional Korean paper. This is the reason why her raising deep questions about the reproduction of not only the modern society but also the nature and art Modern society, appears in the world of her works.

 

Color impressions, came to life, and the figures with vacant expressions are accepted as undeniable existence by the audience. In her works, there is a dazzling harmony between her insight in raising questions and the quality of works.

 

Kim, Jihee says that we, human being, can't live perfectly because we are the beings, being weaken by overlapped sentiment. The reason why she has become such an important artist is that she tries to watch the existence, become ourselves, as there are. The existences that are in hurry to follow blindly the ideal model and turn away from the sentimental roots.

 

The works of Kim, Jihee say that we might have chosen the wrong path. We become human with lost souls and bodies with lost beauty. And we become the face which is no longer the face of human. But we can see the truth beyond the thick masks with her touch and her magic of colors. The truth that we still have hope.