Kimsooja (Kim Soo-ja) is a South Korean conceptual and visual artist. She uses light, sound, textiles and performance along with film and photography. One of her main themes is fabric, sewing and weaving, and she draws inspiration from traditional female workers and sewing crafts in cultures around the world.

Kimsooja creates performance pieces in video form and appears in her work as a presence, often with her back to the camera - still and silent, with her hair tied back and dressed in simple black clothing. In other works, her presence takes the form of her voice, or breathing and subtle background sounds as an audio element. Three dimensional objects are also represented as a presence, and often displayed on location or within a performance, rather than in a gallery. Some objects represent a personal aspect - they could be made, or belong to others - such as balls of clay or bundles of clothes and belongings wrapped in material.

These bundles of material have a particular cultural reference. In traditional Korean culture, items are wrapped in colourful material or bedding ready to be transported, stored, or sent to others. These wrapped bundles are known as bottari. Kimsooja often combines the idea of travel and bottari by including a mode of transport, or a situation where the bundles are in transit, have reached a destination, or are in readiness. Travel is apparent in other aspects of her work and she talks about being transient in terms of location and thought.

A reoccurring symbol is a sewing needle, which she uses to represent connection and the joining of different elements either by representing it physically herself, or by the act of joining materials to create three dimensional works. Kimsooja also suspends or drapes sheets of fabric or flags in outside locations and inside spaces to continue a theme of wrapping and expression through textiles.

Kimsooja's work also refers to a traditional five-aspect spectrum, known in Korea as Obangsaek. Five elements are represented by wood, fire, earth, water, and metal - and each has a colour reference (blue, red, yellow, black, and white respectively). In turn, the colours also represent a cardinal direction (east, south, central, north, and west respectively). One of her works featured a shipping container painted in stripes using this colour scheme. The concept expanded on the idea of possessions and travel - all of her personal possessions from an apartment in New York were inside the container - everything was in a state of transit therefore any destination or direction was a possibility.

Installations involving light have been exhibited in various buildings around the world, and are unusual in that Kimsooja uses the natural light from a building's windows or installed light sources, which are enhanced by mirrored floor coverings and simple squares of fabric. A diffractive film is used to cover any incoming source of natural daylight which produces extraordinary and constantly shifting spectrums of light and reflection within the buildings. Nothing else is exhibited (the space is empty or as it is usually) and subtle sounds play in the background. The empty spaces become the work.

Kimsooja seems to be on a path concerned with oneness, meditation and connecting things together in some way - either spiritually or physically. She has studios in New York, Paris, and Seoul, and travels extensively. An official studio website features pictures and information about her work and exhibitions, and images are also added to an Instagram account.

By Matt Sheen August MMXX - See video playlist for references

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