Yunho Kim at the Atelier Hermès
Atelier Hermès, Seoul-t'ukpyolsi, Seoul, 04/04/2015 - 05/31/2015
7, Dosan-daero 45-gil, Gangnam-gu
Photography is never objective or true, says Yunho Kim: far from representing the object photographed, it depicts a symbol or an emotion generated by the deliberate construction of the image. At Atelier Hermès, the Korean photographer offers a critical examination of aesthetic and commercial photographic imagery.
Landscape photographs are placed on 1m² plinths of differing heights, determined by the price of land or property per square metre in the region photographed – this same figure provides the titles of the individual works. At Atelier Hermès, guest artist and photographer Yunho Kim presents an uncompromising, critical examination of contemporary society, exposing the divide between the sentimental value attributed by individuals to a particular place, and its commercial value.
The Korean-born artist uses photographic images as part of a visual apparatus aimed at transcending the concept of aesthetic value. Eschewing conventional ‘spectacular’ imagery, Kim presents the reality of ‘here and now’: common ground that reveals the hidden ideologies behind the production of shots such as these. Through its distinctive presentation and theme, the m² series at Atelier Hermès subverts the traditional codes of Korean landscape photography.
Yunho Kim (b. 1971, Korea) trained in photography at Chungang University and was a research fellow at Goldsmith’s College, London in 2005. His work challenges existing typologies, in the contemporary German tradition, and has been widely exhibited in Korea and around the world.
