The Pig That Therefore I Am
Miru Kim
March 24 ~ April 23, 2011
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 24th, 6:30~8 pm
Artist Talk: Thursday, March 31st, 6 pm
DOOSAN Gallery New York is pleased to announce The Pig That Therefore I Am, the latest series of Miru Kim’s photography. Having once captured the vulnerability of the mankind, the artist now presents the essence of being that is shared by humans and animals and its state.
In large photographs titled “Composition,” Kim places her body directly in contact with a live pig. There is no space in between the two. Kim, inspired by French philosopher Michael Serres, believes the skin is the point of mergence for the inner soul and the outer world. In other words, the skin serves as the membrane through which inner organs and sensitivity meet the outer system. As the artist lies next to the breathing animal, she experiences an uncanny sense of inseparability. The moment of skin on skin redefines her perception of the world.
Kim then highlights the reasoned separation between humans and animals and reverses such operation by inserting herself in large-scale industrial farms. She shares the momentary experience of being one of the pigs that are rationally mass-produced rather than individually raised as in traditional households. What the artist may be exploring by confining herself amongst the fenced and packed is the reduction of human identity in the contemporary society—the reduced essence of being.
The Artist Talk will take place at 6pm on Thursday, March 31st. All viewers are cordially invited.
Miru Kim was born in 1981 in Stoneham, Massachusetts. She received her B.A. in French and Romance Philology from Columbia University in New York and M.F.A. in Painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Kim has had solo exhibitions at SODA in Instanbul, Turkey (2010), Gallery Hyundai in Seoul, Korea (2009), The Cell Theatre in New York, NY, USA (2009) and Gestarc Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, USA (2008). Her work has also been in group exhibitions at Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales in Montevideo, Uruguay (2010), Fokus Lodz Biennale in Lodz, Poland (2010), Coreana Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea (2010) and Queens Museum of Art in Queens, NY, USA (2009). Kim lives and works in New York.
