Gyul.E Kim’s solo exhibition with ROY Gallery, Synchronized Swimming, showcases the artist’s perception of her world through symbols. However, it deviates from the usual procedural norms of symbolization.

Though symbols in general, like languages, are socially agreed upon norms and institutions those governing our social behaviors gravitationally grounds us at a profound level. The artist rejects this “permanence and universality” of symbols.

Kim’s canvases are superimposed and intersected by brushstrokes and shapes. The contrasts and conflicts traced in the works are natural consequences of her rejection of traditional dynamics between symbol and painting. Given the artist’s strategy of utilizing blank spaces by eliminating the signifier from the signified, her depictions of microscopic objects and figures such as the residue found in wall cracks to the crumbs and dust collected amongst floor crevices are expanded into shapes and colors—which, implicitly suggested seem natural. Through these microscopic objects Kim pierces the larger discourse on the perception and consciousness of the signifier like a needle to an epidermis. Yet, she maintains a certain jocundity in her works and refrains from overt gravitas. Rather than aggressively arriving at her point, she charmingly romanticizes the process. As such, this uncertain process allows for genuine appreciation and aligns itself with modern painting isolated by its quality of reproduction. The signifier ceases its representative role in paintings. The sign, disintegrated, is substituted by a clear structure of entropy. The painting is subsequent to the symbol, and casts itself in a fundamental manner.

In reading her works, we are faced with red circles, light-green squares, and black squiggly lines. People may attempt to understand these symbols but will easily lose direction. However, the resulting meandering precludes the typical eliciting of reactions to social phenomena such as deprivation and alienation. Rather, Kim desires the audience to enjoy the process of solving the labyrinth of infinite possibilities in given symbols.

“When I watch synchronized swimming, I feel a sense of alienation from the upturned feet walking on waves, and as such used these as symbols. I feel that this act is similar to how I perceive objects and transfer them on to the canvas.” – Gyul. E Kim

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The familiarity of simple symbols, and the strangeness of indecipherable ones. Kim’s works, which are ultimately pleasing to the eye, await their turn with the audience.