Soo Kim’s third solo exhibition at this gallery consists of multiple portraits of one young woman interspersed with photographs of light-drenched nature scenes. The woman in the portraits leans forward, as if resting or falling asleep, one arm outstretched. All but one of these images feature silhouettes of fanciful birds and flowers or decorative patterning, alternately psychedelic and byzantine, carved into the surface of the paper. In spite of the dreamy nature of the exhibition as a whole, the physical action of cutting the photographs adds a dark cast to this suite of images; the proximity of the cutout imagery to the woman’s face connotes danger and obliquely references self-mutilation. But this incidental reading only punctuates the seductive nature of the work, as beautiful as it is complicated. The cutouts also suggest absentminded doodles magically materialized through the artist’s pen (or knife). Works such as To herself (all works 2008), in which the woman seems to “draw” a garden, support this whimsical reading. But the photographs—and their titles—also point to the fragility of the mind, couching commentary on the indeterminate boundaries of imagination in a strikingly elegant formalism. In Totters forward, the figure is engulfed in cutout patterns, then freed of them in Totters back, the only portrait without incisions. The subject’s pose, indicative of languid luxury or of depression, further provokes the question: Is she dreaming or going mad? The nature scenes are photographs of trees viewed through the angular glass panes of a Frank Lloyd Wright–designed church. Dissected by white light, the foliage in this context furthers a sense of reverie or anomie and mirrors the undercurrents of dissonance and tranquility evident in the portraits. Progressing through this carefully ordered exhibition, fanciful swirls, decorative patterns, and brilliant sunlight manifest as a kind of psyche, suggesting an extended, or altered, understanding of consciousness.
