¡®Fragments of discontinuous memories¡¯: While Traveling

Ara Kim¡¯s work is the process of capturing moments of inspiration and is based on photos that are taken while traveling. Traveling allows for us to transiently depart the reality and present the opportunity to look back into our lives. It invigorates new perspectives and leaves noble memories. The artist is also mesmerized by the horizontal landscapes departing away from the vertical landscapes highlighted by the city. While on a fast running train staring out into the panoramic landscape through the window, there is the urge to capture the moment.

The ¡°canvas¡± is the window of the past memories and furthermore becomes a medium for the connection between artist and the audience. It transcends beyond the use as a tool for artwork and becomes an objet in itself. The 70 or so unpretentious squares are displayed side by side presenting a pathway for audiences to walk on.Eyes shift between landscapes and the shattered time and space become blended amongst one another. The subject ¡®thin layer¡¯ is an allusion to the extended row of canvas that illustrates an image of a train en route to somewhere. The artist scrapes the fragments of discontinuous memories and shares them with the audience through the visual effect of ¡®thin layer¡¯.

Through the small window is a sketch of landscapes from various memories. Some of these depictions are expressed with dull strokes drawing to the materialistic properties of the oil paints and some are meticulously painted as if staring into a still photo.These discontinuous memories are apathetic of time and space, and are displayed without flow or order. For the audience, it presents an experience such as sitting in a train that may make series of run and stop traveling through time. In theatrical film, the use of dramatic adaptation of a scene to disrupt the continuity is called ¡°jump cut¡±. It is a technique that unnaturally breaks one scene from another leaving of time into pieces. It is regarded as an expedient technique for portraying modern and ontological themes. Memory is something that ¡°oneself¡± considers as being extremely subjective and fragmentary. Also, as time passes by, memories pile up into vagueness. Thus, the artist believes that the discontinuity highlighted by ¡°jump cut¡± technique is similar to the way she personally reminisce the past memories.

The exhibition ¡°thin layer¡± is the recording of the time and space of the artist¡¯s serene recollection of her memories. Besides the artistical representation of the landscape, the artist wishes to use the window as an objet to transcend time and space and share the landscapes from traveling with the audiences. The artist¡¯s explicit portrayal of the contemplation of life and incompleteness of memories is a pronounced representation of modernity. Curiosity arises as to how the artist will tackle the life¡¯s ambiguity and irony in her next work

¡°Through the windows, I encountered the world and it became a memory; you will be able to visualize my memories through your own windows. Since the fragments of memories are recollected, it again becomes the world that you and I belong to¡±- Except from artist¡¯s note