Reminiscent Reflection
Kim was one of five artists in the Spring ’24 cohort of the Keyhole Workspace Residency at ECOCA. The studio theme was ‘climate’.
Opening Reception Sunday, June 23rd, 3-5pm
Reminiscent Reflection is born in a small attic space. Dark and old, the room is shaped like a capital A underneath the bar in the middle, yet a window facing the street lets in plenty of light. Materials in hand, scraped and collected for intended use of another sculpture, remnants from a recent (de)installation, a noticeable color discrepancy on the wooden floor, and a sanctuary of angled ceiling covered in tearing-down wallpaper seem to be scarce of things to begin with. The air in the room must have been filthy with collected dust and things over time, but the light itself isn’t. A beam of light brings in all the contrasting freshness, springiness, and liveliness from the outside, penetrating right through the hard glass surface.
Some things let light go through, some reflect, some smear and absorb, and some may be a combination of those. Reminiscent Reflection may be a combination of all. Perhaps the clear paint drops hold the light a bit longer, as if taking time to dry into tiny round dots.
Observing the passing time and changing light through Reminiscent Reflection during the daylight sparks condensed memories of certain days, events, or emotions, all in a smoothly progressive yet swift motion. A change of a material state- from solid to liquid, cold to warm, young to old- can be documented simply as before and after, but the process in between is rather ambiguous for a clean definition, thus often referred to as a state of chaos or a journey to the unknown.
The change in state causes us to look forward to the future while also reflecting on the past. Reminiscing how things were is a process of having the solid history melt into nostalgic memory particles. Often with a contrasting present reality and a bit of regret, a song of wishes and hopes commemorating past beauty our nostalgia plays.
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Esthea Kim is an interdisciplinary artist integrating sculpture, installation and painting. Her works represent a captured notion from memories and express the sensed and theorized through fading and poetic imagery in a visually succinct way. Transposed from her perception, her painting transfers atmospheric vastness into repeated gestural brushstrokes and built up textures. While fleetingly capturing light in-between layers, these brushstrokes combine with hard-edged elements, condensing infinite views and the unseen into a single flattened composition. Esthea’s sculptural objects and installations are industrial yet organic. Focusing on the inherent qualities of materials, she expands the use of prefabricated and utilitarian items into more organic forms.
