Ki Yong Kim

written by Isabelle Choi

From a sink of soaking dishes, you hold up a gleaming saucepan to scrub; the surface against the sponge feels round and smooth as your hand glides along the side. Waiting in front of the elevator, you catch a diffused reflection against the brushed metal doors. On the subway to work, you firmly grip the polished handrail for balance. It feels cold to the touch; it feels solid. Steel — it is ubiquitous in our daily lives and an integral component in many industries, such as transportation and modern construction. This was the functional relationship Kim Kiyong had with the synthetic metal during his decade-long tenure at an ironworks. Amid the blast furnaces and casting equipment, he was compelled by steel structures and the versatility of their forms, which set the ground for his formative years as a metal sculptor.

커피 (Coffee)

Stainless Steel 430 x 1370 x 430cm

Kim’s background in the arts began at Yeongnam University in 1986, where he studied Asian painting. Upon graduation Kim struggled with his identity as a painter; he poignantly stated, “I grabbed a brush and stood in front of a sheet of hanji. My mind turned blank and I realized that what I learned and felt were not my thoughts but those of others.” Kim experimented in folk art and engaged in the transformative Minjung art movement through its development into postmodernism. To support himself, Kim took on various work in outdoor commercial installations before landing among factory steel plates and welding rods.

용융 (Meltdown)

Stainless Steel 1110 x 570 x 260cm

After a 17-year hiatus, Kim had re-emerged to explore his artistry and technical dexterity. Today, moulding his own philosophy, Kim strips his medium of its industrial purpose into abstraction with hand-crafted texture, often representing his connection to the environment around him. This is playfully shown in Kim’s latest series, “Meltdown,” where he uses an arrangement of fundamental forms — prominently featuring intertwined and layered rings of varying scale that are drenched in metallic lustre. In “Meltdown” (above), the geometric figures overlap one another, vying for the viewer’s attention in a reminiscent manner of Kandinsky’s transcending, non-objective paintings. There is an allusion of airiness and the sculpture appears to be floating — though not above the will of gravity as melted steel drips toward the ground. Movement is inferred yet suspended in time, indicated by the tail of the dense drippings as they meld at the base. The irony does not escape the viewer: the fabricated liquidity created by molten metal — a nod to his method — is still cold to the touch.

Meltdown - Möbius Strip

Stainless Steel , 460 x 700 x 330cm

And rough. Every curve and elevation is unique from the one that follows, a contrast from the uniformity of factory assembled steel. It would not be farfetched to note that the rugged textures of “Meltdown” resembles a foiled tree-bark surface. Perhaps this is not mere coincidence, as the juxtaposition of metal with natural form has been a recurring theme in Kim’s work.

Sibererian Chrysanthemum

Stone and Stainless Steel 370 x 390 x 240cm

During his artistic evolution, Kim has also been called the “sculptor of steel and stone,” and produced notable works such as “Siberian Chrysanthemum” (above). Here, stainless steel piping — or rather, silvery, organic roots — seem to envelop an arching stack of stones. The duality of nature and artificiality is evident, the latter protectively coating and supporting the basalt structure as if suggesting a call to environmental action. The same embrace appears in Kim’s “Fruiting” (below), a thoughtful homage to his late father, an apple farmer from North Gyeongsang Province. Both collections were featured in Kim’s pivotal solo exhibition in 2017, “I Can’t Say I Want To Be Loved.”

Fruiting

Stainless Steel 960 x 700 x 500cm

It has been a multifarious journey for Kim, having become immersed in the heat of creation as an experimentalist, an artist and welder. From function to form, Kim’s steely romance continues to be transformed with each telling series. As new narratives are forged, echoing the production of steel in our immediate world, we are reminded of this lustrous metal’s endless facets and enduring beauty.