Sung-Kook Kim

Sung-Kook Kim’s work expresses relationships between individuals, individuals and society, and societies as a whole. Finding these relationships difficult to comprehend, yet ultimately compelling, his works stand as symbolic visualisations of social relationships, feelings, and his internal perspectives of these experiences. They are the process of analysing and understanding the relationships which lie in his surroundings. They are also devices to capture the moments of everyday life which he believes are too meaningful to let pass by. Many of Kim’s themes derive from interpersonal problems; always striving to be an extroverted, sociable person, yet consistently coming up against difficulties. He believes that proper self-disclosure (the extent to which one person reveals himself to another through communication) is necessary for maintaining good relationships with others. In that respect, knowing one's self accurately is important; but for Sung-Kook King this is something he remarks he has still ‘not figured out’. Due to this, he chooses to appropriate well-known images and concepts that exist in society and compose them within his surroundings onto a canvas. For the artist, this is a reflective act and a way for him to see himself, as if looking in a mirror.

Sung-Kook Kim’s The Total Solar Eclipsetells a personal story. The work was painted following his girlfriend’s brother developing leukaemia, a period of intense worry for Kim, who details that he fears both the dramatic and subtle changes to people’s relationships, thoughts and methods of livelihood due to illness or injury, whilst recognising they are a fact of life.