Story

Minjung Kim South Korean
2006
Not on view
Working with Korean mulberry paper, Kim creates a language of abstraction that emphasizes the materiality of paper and its relationship to nature and the body. Story belongs to an eponymous series begun in the mid-2000s that took its formal inspiration from the stacked books in Kim’s library in Milan. The grid-like pattern is formed by meticulously pasting thin paper strips with lightly burned edges, tightly arranged with an overlap, onto a thicker sheet of paper. The varying tones of the paper and their burned marks represent the most important aspects of Kim’s art and practice: accumulation and repetition, chance and transformation through the process of burning. With the innovative use of paper, a heritage material associated with rituals, craft, and intellectual histories, as both primary subject and medium, Kim creates a minimalist composition with optical intrigue.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Story
  • Artist: Minjung Kim (South Korean, born Gwangju 1962)
  • Date: 2006
  • Medium: Collage of burnt and torn Korean papers (Hanji) on Hanji
  • Dimensions: 56 7/8 × 83 1/16 in. (144.5 × 211 cm)
  • Classification: Works on Paper
  • Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 2023
  • Object Number: 2023.233
  • Rights and Reproduction: Copyright of the artist © Minjung Kim
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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