The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

SOUTH KOREA KWAN-SOD KIM Black box 1985 Glass, cloth, clay, bone and other objects in wooden box 100x90x40cm Collection: The artist Kwan-Soo Kim was born in 1953 in Chungju, South Korea. After graduating from Kyung­ Hee University in Seoul heobtaineda Master of Fine Arts from Hong-lk University in 1985, the sameyear he held his first solo exhibition in the Art Hall in Seoul. His second and most recent solo exhibition was in Germany in 1987. The artist has participated regularly in group exhibitions including the 'TA-RA Group Exhibition', Kwan-Hoon Gallery, Seoul, from 1981 to 1990; 'The Young Artist Exhibition', National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, 1983; 'ISPAA Pan-Pacific Exhibition', Japan, 1984; 'Asia Art Exhibition', Japan, 1985; 'Korean Modern Art of Yesterday and Today', National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, 1986; and the '43rd Venice Biennale', Italy, 1988. Most recently, his work has been shown in 'The Conclusion of the Century', Canada, 1991. Kwan-Soo Kim's work is represented inthecollections of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul and the Museum of Kunsan University. The artist lives and works in Seoul. In his work Kwan-SooKim does not blindly follow or copy any ideology or 'ism'. Rather, 82 he presents his own individual concerns through his own characteristic methodology, repeatedly questioning the relationship and meaning his works have with the vivid, living reality of the current age. Things which have been cherished in his own personal memory of the past carry their own particular meanings and are thus embodied in his Black box; they are ar­ ranged with great care and displayed in the Black box. Confronting Kwan-Soo Kim's works in the quiet atmosphere of an art museum, the viewer can perceive part of the value that a person strives for, that one tries to retain, and thus can see a different side of the life of today. Kwan-Soo Kim's works re-stage the things which have lost their effective values and which have been alienated by the changing society of the present day. They confirm the things of the 'unreal time zone'. When in­ evitably confronted with them, the viewer experiences a paradoxical reality but can, with the help of such confirmation, face a certain emotional world that unconsciously goes unnoticed-the world where there is a bucolic and rural dream. Based on an article by Woo-hak Yoon and biographical data supplied by the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea