National Photography Month: KangHee Kim
KangHee Kim, Spring Has Sprung, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Benrubi Gallery, NYC
Written by: Claire Ping
Using Photoshop to create surreal spaces where one cannot physically travel, Kang Hee Kim’s photographs may be a timely escape for us all. Visa restrictions, no trips abroad and repeated exposure to the same sights everyday – these experiences that many are struggling to adapt to over the past year have been Kim’s reality for more than a decade.
Born in Seoul, Kim moved to the United States with her family as a fourteen year old. What should have been a standard process of immigration turned complicated when her lawyer missed a critical deadline. Unable to secure citizenship as a result, she came under the protection of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, otherwise known as DACA. The status makes international travel a risky business, as she may have difficulties returning to the country. Kim described her experience: “To be in DACA is living in limbo.” She has lacked the chance to revisit South Korea since her travels can only stretch as far as Hawai’i – one of the furthest places for her to go while remaining within American borders.
KangHee Kim, Delicate Nests, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Benrubi Gallery, NYC
Restricted mobility in practical life encouraged Kim to explore imaginative escapes through photography. Originally trained in painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art, she became intuitively drawn to the medium in her final year at college. Instead of conventional documentation, she would come to find an interest in digitally manipulating her images and creating surreal scenes with a dreamlike appearance. In Delicate Nests, a patch of sky is caught within a frame formed by tree branches. One single palm tree floats above the clouds in Dreamers Dream.
Both pictures are part of an ongoing series titled Street Errands. Beginning in 2016, Kim has been collaging photographs taken during her daily life in New York with those from her trips to other parts of the country. Although her works involve a process of merging and altering, they also embody an element of spontaneity. Instead of planning ahead, Kim often captures small details and mundane scenarios that attract her attention. She then works from an accumulated archive to select and fuse images, an experience that liberates her from the confines she has to endure in real life.
KangHee Kim, Dreamers Dream, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Benrubi Gallery, NYC
Kim’s photographs collapse boundaries between the real and the fantastical, while also conceptually traversing borders in the digital realm. Given that her initial experiments with photography coincide with a moment when smartphone cameras were improving in quality, it is perhaps unsurprising that Instagram had been a major platform to show her work in the earlier years of her career. The tranquil aesthetic of her images, accentuated by the use of calming and pleasant colours, places her within a generation of photographers for whom social media is both a main channel of influence and exposure. Kim acknowledges the limits of Instagram, citing a lack of control over the way in which complex ideas can be lost or simplified when circulated through the Internet.
KangHee Kim, Hope in 1/2 Miles, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and Benrubi Gallery, NYC
Indeed, despite their delightful look, Kim’s works are born out of frustrating experiences of displacement and obtaining new identities in the legal as well as the personal sense. Viewed in this light, her surreal photo collages may be a fitting metaphor for the journey of the immigrant who likewise merges, recreates and inhabits new minds and landscapes.
