LOS ANGELES — An aria is a solo piece in an opera or other large-scale vocal work. It’s usually a more personal and reflective moment for the soloist that acts as an inner pause in the larger story. Similarly, although less by choice than by circumstances related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Soo Kim’s new exhibition at the Anat Ebgi gallery, Ariafinds the artist stepping away from his usual practice based on location and research, and instead presenting work stripped down and deeply personal.
Aria consists of five photographs of the artist arranging and rearranging flowers in primary colors, a process based on Bas Jan Ader’s experimental film Primary hour. Kim then cuts out portions of the photograph following the organic lines of the petals until only one of the primary colors remains. There is a soft, elegiac quality to this work, informed by the artist’s personal experience, particularly the memory of looking Primary hour with a friend who is now terminally ill with a terminal illness. The flowers are not only a reference to Ader’s film, but also to the offering of flowers as an act of care. Text by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum is included on vinyl on the gallery wall, part of which reads:
When flowers are offered – in love, celebration or condolence – the power of the gift stems from its splendid impracticality: an outsized beauty that instantly succumbs to the passage of time.
The black backgrounds, dramatic lighting, and larger-than-life scale of the photographs enhance the work’s sense of intimacy and isolation. Kim uses both real and artificial flowers in these photographs, drawing attention to the fact that real flowers will fade, while artificial flowers will remain in their static state. Tiny fragments of artificial flowers can be seen in the photos, a record of the arrangement and rearrangement process. These photographs cannot be reprinted – they are one of a kind and bear slight scarring from where their surfaces were pressed or turned when Kim cut the image. The artist’s hands are literally present in every photograph and figuratively present through the arabesque-shaped cut-out elements that accentuate the images.
All of these details work together to make this series about the act of arranging, about the impulse to create something with our hands for ourselves and for others. Making art, although a solitary exercise, is a way of acknowledging, celebrating, and nurturing the personal, professional, and historical relationships we have created for ourselves as artists. Aria is Soo Kim’s beautifully impractical gift (to borrow from Bynum’s beautiful text) to herself, her friend, and the viewer. He celebrates and mourns the impermanence of these relationships, a bittersweet song that lingers in the memory of others long after it’s been sung.
Soo Kim: Aria continues at the Anat Egbi Gallery (6150 Wilshire Blvd, Miracle Mile, Los Angeles) until April 22. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.
