Not to suggest that I am not always excited about the artists I write about, but Miru Kim was a particularly exciting discovery for me. I really admire her work and think that it is very interesting. I was waltzing around youtube, watching videos of TED Conference speeches when I stumbled upon Miru Kim's (from 2008). While it was a little difficult to sit through (15min and her speaking is a bit monotonous), she had some pretty interesting things to say, and I was really taken by her art, which I had never seen before. She addresses her personal history, what attracts her to these spaces, the way she works, and discusses a bunch of individual photographs (specifically from her main series, Naked City Spleen).
Kim initially came to NYC in 1999 (she was born in MA and raised in Seoul, Korea) to become a doctor, because she was really interested in biology. She found herself instead taken by the "biology of the city" and exploring or "dissecting" the unseen layers. Starting by following the rats, creatures she felt a particular connection to because of their use in medical science and the way that we tend to view them, placing them on sort of the fringe. From abandoned tunnels, hospitals and factories she has graduated to locations as famed and loaded as the catacombs in France.
By photographing herself naked in these spaces, a decision she has made to make them seem both timeless and feral, Kim activates abandoned space in a really powerful way. They remind me a little bit of Francesca Woodman's work, but they are still entirely different. They seem less femininely poetic and sad than Woodman's self portraits, something that I really like about Kim's photographs (and this being said Woodman is one of my favorite artists). Perhaps it is the scale of the spaces or the fact that they are in color, but I imagine it has something more-so to do with intent and the fact that at the base of it, they are self portraits, and entirely different women.
In any case the photographs are absolutely stunning, and worth admiring.
video of 2008 TED talk
Kim's website
Naked City Arts - Kim's not-for-profit art space for young artists (loc. in Lower Manhattan)
images: mirukim.com
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