10 Questions with Jongbum Kim

Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine ISSUE11 | Featured Artist

Jongbum Kim is a New York-based designer, artist, and illustrator who explores the ideas of gender and multicultural communities through the medium of cloth. With a strong belief in seeing and experiencing the world firsthand, Jongbum’s designs are filled with color and symbolism, both literal and figurative, engaging the viewer and provoking them to respond. They strive to create paintings and fiber artwork that are an expression of his personal voice and life’s journey.

www.jongbumkim.com | @jongbum.bongba.kim

ARTIST STATEMENT

Jongbum's work varies from small, stitched wall pieces to large-scale installations incorporating diverse approaches, methods, and techniques, such as print, weave, tuft, knit, quilt, embroidery, paintings, and drawings as well as 3D objects. They find inspiration everywhere, in the materials, nature, the spiritual world, and the very experience of being alive and engaging with others. Made in two and three dimensions, their installations create the atmosphere of a Sanctuary. They combine handcraft techniques and modern industrial technology to bring everyone to their interpretation of utopia. A utopia is a magical place where everyone and everything is special. All of their illustrations draw upon vivid dreams and fragments of memories, placing them within the context of their journey through identity, color, and gender/sexuality culminating in the eventual blossoming of themselves from fantasy into the essential reality of who they are. Hand-drawn illustrations are digitally printed, creating psychedelic patterns stuffed with recycled blankets, sewn, quilted, and embellished with crystal beads. These are then made as artisanal interior objects, soft sculptures, and textile art wall pieces. The discomfort they experience in a world that is often limited to binary categories is exploded through their hand-drawn illustrations, where they show social interactions of fantasy characters and multicultural communities free of gender, caste, and creed boundaries. There is a deep connection with nature whilst embracing the ethos of loving oneself, one's life, and others. Their work is healing and expressing their spiritual worldview, free of rules and discrimination, and free of existing baggage, rewriting their own rules, and deciding their being in the world. Categorizing gender limits us. Being nomadic is my way of absorbing multiple cultures and trying to be one with the universe. The multicultural nomadic lifestyle encourages them to embrace every moment of life and learn from challenges. It makes them realize true happiness and how I should spread it to others.

INTERVIEW

First of all, introduce yourself to our readers. What is your background, and how did you develop into the artist you are today? 

I was born in Seoul, South Korea, and I lived in 5 different countries in my life. Korea, Singapore, England, France, and now in the U.S.A. I loved drawing when I was a child and had a passion for art. After high school, I went to London Central Saint Martins for my undergraduate studies majoring in fashion design. After graduation, I realized that I wanted to study more about textiles. So, I came to New York to do a master's course in The New School Parsons School of Design, majoring in Textiles. So I became a New York-based designer/artist/illustrator who explores the ideas of gender and multicultural communities through the medium of cloth. With a strong belief in seeing and experiencing the world firsthand, my art and designs are filled with color and symbolism, both literal and figurative, engaging the viewer and provoking them to respond. I strive to create paintings and fiber artwork that are an expression of my personal voice and life's journey.

Do you remember when you first realized you wanted to be an artist? What inspired you to pursue this career? 

At the beginning of my life in New York, I became 30. I never thought I would be an artist. When I was studying Textiles in New York, I had several exhibitions in Manhattan, and there were a lot of people in those exhibitions. Among them, a lot of people came up to me and were interested in buying my artworks. That's when I realized that I could be an artist and make this my career.

You work with clothes and textiles, which you use to create installations and sculptural pieces. Why did you choose this medium? 

I studied fashion for my bachelor's degree, so I knew 3D constructions with fabrics. After that, I added some fabric manipulations and wanted to create a textured artwork. So I learned different techniques in textiles to create the texture and patterns I wanted. That gave me no limitations in expressing what I wanted in my mind. So my work varies from small, stitched wall pieces to large-scale installations that incorporate diverse approaches/ methods/ techniques, such as print, weave, tuft, knit, quilt, embroidery, paintings, and drawings as well as 3D objects.

How do you choose the fabrics to use in your works? Are those vintage or second-hand pieces, or do you research them in any particular shop? And what is the concept behind your choice? The fabrics, yarns, and embellishments are mostly recycled. I go around the world whenever I have the chance and collect fabric straps from random fabric shops if they have leftovers that they cannot sell, get donated yarns, get embellishments from trimming shops, or get sponsored by a company and make different artwork combining them. I create many hand-drawn illustrations and digitally print them on recycled fabrics. I also get recycled garments from Eileen Fisher Waste no more, which is a very sustainable company. I get recycled garments from them and make new interior artwork with a machine needle felting technique. I want to bring everyone to my dreamland. Where everyone is special, I believe that the differences are what make the world beautiful and interesting. It is my interpretation of utopia. When I think about it, our society tends to categorize people and viewpoints by making people' check a box' of who they are in order to understand or judge a person in a simpler dimension. I think it makes people feel vulnerable when boxes do not represent them, while they can belong anywhere and be anything they want to be. My work is acknowledging differences but me attempting to connect with the world and celebrating the differences with everyone and us becoming one. It is a representation of unity in diversity.

Your work is colorful and cheerful, and you quote two key concepts to describe it in your statement: utopia and sanctuary. What do you aim to communicate with your work? How are the concepts of utopia and sanctuary incorporated into your work? 

There are lots of colors and cheerful vibes in my work. There is a deep connection with nature whilst embracing the ethos of loving oneself, one's life, and others. My work is a sanctuary for people which expresses unity in diversity and non-duality. Diversity is knowing that all individuals are different, but we should all connect with each other and understand gender, race, and all the issues in the world should stop. I often use cat drawings or symbolism as a metaphor for different people but showing us that we are one. We just look different, but we are all human.

You also deal with gender and identity topics, which are at the forefront of the debate these days. What is, in your experience, the response of the public?

The discomfort I experience in a world that is often limited to binary categories is exploded through my hand-drawn illustrations, where I show social interactions of fantasy characters and multicultural communities free of gender, caste, and creed boundaries. My work is healing and expressing my spiritual worldview, free of rules, discrimination, and free of existing baggage, rewriting my own rules, and deciding on my being in the world.

How much do you think art can influence or stimulate the debate around themes like these?

Art itself has the power of moving people's emotions. If I can create artwork that can change everyone's perspective, it will definitely have an impact. Being nomadic is my way of absorbing multiple cultures and trying to be one with the universe. The multicultural nomadic lifestyle encourages me to embrace every moment of life, see the world and understand different perspectives and learn from challenges. It makes me realize true happiness and how I should spread it to others. I hope artworks like this influence a lot of people.

You live in New York, a city full of possibilities for artists; what is your relationship with the art market and art institutions? Do you think New York is still the place to be in when it comes to contemporary art? 

Yes. I still think New York is a great place to be an artist. There are so many opportunities for an artist to be acknowledged. There are so many galleries to exhibit my work. At the beginning of my New York life, I never imagined that I could be an artist, but I still remember in my first exhibition, there were many people viewing my artwork and were interested in buying them. I was thrilled by that and had thought that I could make this my career.

What about online events and presentations? In your opinion, should we move to the digital world and the Metaverse, or is it still relevant to have in-person events and meetings? 

I do appreciate the digital world and the Metaverse, but I think in-person events and meetings are still relevant because there are things that you need to see with your own eyes and human interactions are important. Feeling the vibe and the connection with people is what I think is important. We all do not want to be in a digital world where there are no vibes or feelings you can only feel when we touch and connect. People will not be able to appreciate the actual colors of a painting or the texture of an artwork or clothes etc. 

Lastly, what are you working on now? Do you have any new projects or exhibitions you would like to share with our readers? 

I am working on a combination of an actual painting and turning it into a textile painting with different techniques that I use. I will combine handcraft techniques and modern industrial technology in my new work. I just started to do it, so it will take a while, but I am really excited to get this artwork done. It will be a magical feeling.