**_happy bath stool(2023)_** is an endurance performance and kinetic sculpture inspired by childhood exfoliation rituals in Korean bathhouses. The oversized stool, covered in silicone tiles, embodies discomfort and memory. Dressed in a "Happy Woman" costume, I enact repetitive, violent gestures against the stool, exploring themes of beauty, labor, and resilience

happy bathstool 

Notes on Alcoholism

> **_I like to make fun and beautiful pictures with decorative value. My goal is to make your space more beautiful and make it fun for the viewers._**

Camel

The Adventures of Tintin is a series of cartoons created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi. Kim received a letter from his girlfriend and the illustration of the letter was the Adventures of Tintin. Kim was inspired by the image, and decided to make this work.

The foreground is filled with explosions expressed with oil stick and oil pastel, along with smoke expressed with oil. The middle view shows a falling plane(Tintin) and the far view shows pink liquid that already seems to have exploded.

Tintin and Bang!, 2021, oil, oil stick, and oil pastel on canvas, 63.85 x 51.3 inches

**_I like to make fun and beautiful pictures with decorative value. My goal is to make your space more beautiful and make it fun for the viewers._**

  

Goose

_AV Buddha_ (2022), is an extensive kinetic sound installation in the form of a Buddha figure. Archive material on the horrors of the Korean War is presented on small mobile screens that make up the Buddha's face. The contrast between the spiritual and the mechanical is central: in the black-and-white films, we are confronted with marginalized groups that history has overlooked, while the Buddha figure is brought to life in a mechanical symphony, only to then fall silent. Hankyul links the work to the contemporary mediation of disasters and mass death, where the short time horizon in social media leaves no room for slow and more time-consuming processes such as grief. The title _AV Buddha_ refers to the iconic work _TV Buddha_ (1974) by the South Korean artist Nam June Paik, which, among other things, thematizes the relationship between East and West, religion and media society, surveillance and control.

AV Buddha

This is a part of my current art project to visually narrate the story of the migration of osprey in the Britain, and the isolation of Ō Ō birds in Hawaiian islands. 

Scottish Osprey

Kim’s works recount memories of everyday encounters such as sceneries, movies, and books. With ordinary scenes and popular images as his source, the artist constructs a subjective archive.

Work, the result of a 2 year-long project, is the artist’s record of contemporary culture. Each work is an interpretation of a popular image, such as the famous dancing scene in the Academy- winning film La La Land, the scene in Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84 in which the protagonist looks up at the moon, and the lamppost in the C. S. Lewis series The Chronicles of Narnia.

Kim's works show simplicity, sincerity, and authenticity like Milton Avery and Philip Guston. The materials he uses; oil pastels and oil sticks give viewers intimate feelings. This work shows how contemporary film and literature with distinct characteristics are reduced down to uniform colors when processed through a consumer.

Untitled

This work explores the fascinating & curious characteristics of various feathers. As with many of Gromoll’s works the foundation stems from a large collection which is displayed on the second floor. Connected through only a hole in the ceiling, the underlying room is the stage for a brief 5 minute performance.
A selection of feathers is intuitively chosen and released to the lower room. Detached from their natural purpose to serve flight, the feathers are now able to show their own unique personality. As they dance down from the ceiling a magnificent and ethereal play reveals itself. The feathers’ descent is guided by what once was its natural function, its remaining form as a separated entity in combination with what seems like the will to express its newfound identity.
Eventually this play comes to conclusion as an image on the floor shaped by the chosen feathers and their paths.


Feathers

Within cocoon a selection is shown of an ongoing process in which deceased insects are gathered throughout daily life. A fragile husk is all that remains from many of these creatures, yet upon closer inspection immense beauty may be found in their transient physical presence.
Through adopting the insects into this colony of unseen passing, a new stage in the post-lifecycle is set in motion. Encased in a thin and vulnerable glass cocoon, they are offered temporary protection & preservation from outside influences, human or natural alike.
The glass cocoon as an intervention allows for the short life of each of these individuals to resonate beyond their own time. An opportunity for us to take a more attentive look at these tiny beings which account for the majority of life on the planet.


Cocoon

“Stones” shows the results of various journeys and walks on which stones where collected. Driven by intuition and Gromoll’s sense of natural beauty these particular objects displayed a true sense of individuality.
The act of balancing each stone on a single nail elevates them beyond their material presence, becoming entities who act as guides in this newly arisen landscape. Only with attention to ones surroundings and light footing will visitors be able to navigate this delicate world.

Stones

Within a diaframe the decelerated proces of a decaying flower is contained. Over a period of time we may encounter this very same flower at different stages. One of these moments is captured in a still, enlarged and illuminated in order to depict & enhance its beauty and fragile nature.


Flower

Kim’s works recount memories of everyday encounters such as sceneries, movies, and books. With ordinary scenes and popular images as his source, the artist constructs a subjective archive.

Work, the result of a 2 year-long project, is the artist’s record of contemporary culture. Each work is an interpretation of a popular image, such as the famous dancing scene in the Academy- winning film La La Land, the scene in Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84 in which the protagonist looks up at the moon, and the lamppost in the C. S. Lewis series The Chronicles of Narnia.

Kim's works show simplicity, sincerity, and authenticity like Milton Avery and Philip Guston. The materials he uses; oil pastels and oil sticks give viewers intimate feelings. This work shows how contemporary film and literature with distinct characteristics are reduced down to uniform colors when processed through a consumer.



Kim’s works recount memories of everyday encounters such as sceneries, movies, and books. With ordinary scenes and popular images as his source, the artist constructs a subjective archive. 

Work, the result of a 2 year-long project, is the artist’s record of contemporary culture. Each work is an interpretation of a popular image, such as the famous dancing scene in the Academy- winning film La La Land, the scene in Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84 in which the protagonist looks up at the moon, and the lamppost in the C. S. Lewis series The Chronicles of Narnia. 

Kim's works show simplicity, sincerity, and authenticity like Milton Avery and Philip Guston. The materials he uses; oil pastels and oil sticks give viewers intimate feelings. This work shows how contemporary film and literature with distinct characteristics are reduced down to uniform colors when processed through a consumer. 

Untitled #1

Deer-followers who follow the sun and moon represent life on Earth that repeats its revolution and rotation. The rolling mountains that they walk on are the life of life. Earth's revolution and rotation limit the dimensions of life on Earth. Even though the world seems to have countless possibilities, it is what happens on Earth after all.

the sun and the moon and followers

This matched the dragon, a mythical animal, with the four real seasons. Each of the four compartments in the background means spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The combination of the dragon and the four seasons suggests that the myth is an introduced concept to explain reality. Mythology revolves around reality and life.

harmony between myth and true story

The whale, the biggest creature in the sea, was represented as a symbol of underwater life. The colorful borders reflect humans' fear and curiosity about water. The whale is passing from the deep sea to another deep sea. If you look at the scene from a human gaze, it will look like it is passing through the Magic Warp.

a magic whale

The elephant, the largest animal on land, was represented as a symbol of the universe that overwhelms humanity. The huge face and unpredictable pattern show that the uncertainty of the future, that is, entropy, increases. It is an intuitive expression of the second law of thermodynamics.

an elephant in thermodynamics

The pattern represents the particles of the universe. The complexity of the pattern represents the interaction of particles in the four-dimensional space-time we live in. The monotonous colors in the background represent the vacuum of the particle-free universe.

A cosmic cat

Giraffes mean life and stained glass means non-life. The combination of life and non-life indicates nature's inevitability. Life becomes non-life, but non-life cannot become life. Non-life accumulates and life is created. This is nature's inevitability.

Stained glass and giraffe

The painting means that what shines is not the image of a jewel, but of a person who is fascinated by it. The images and emotions of a person are incomparable to anything that has a substance. After all, it is the person, not the material, that matters.

a diamond thief

The intricate patterns on the peacock's torso indicate irregularities in life. The empty areas of the tailgating mean that they are free from irregularities from death. The contrast between life and death means that they come from irregularities.

Peacock

The One A Vast Blue Bloom and the Birds Never Seen

Phantom Reverie

Nocturne in The Blue Land

Atmospheric Requiem

Bio-Synthetic Symphony

In **_mogyoktang 목욕탕 (2022)_**, I transform into a monstrous loofah—the very object that caused my injury—to reclaim power and confront my trauma. Set within a ceramic-tiled shower booth, the piece envisions my body as its walls. Through scrubbing, squeezing, and scouring, I purge scabs and stains, confronting violence, colorism, and self-reclamation.

mogyoktang (excerpt)

**_happy woman (2022)_** explores the intersection of beauty, labor, and erasure. Inspired by the female character from the cover of a Korean exfoliating mitt, it features the character whose skin gradually accumulates layers of ‘color’ as people step on her face, symbolizing the persistent imprints of societal expectations on the body.

happy woman

**_happy workout station (2023)_** features two performers locked in rigorous workout routines. One intensifies their pull-down machine sets by adding “head” weights across 12 repetitions, while the other endures vibrating belts on their waist, switching between three types. The piece highlights the discomfort and near-torture people endure to meet societal ideals, questioning the cost of aesthetic perfection and the pursuit of unattainable standards

happy workout Station

**_the woman series (2024)_** draws inspiration from Korea’s exfoliation machines and cultural beauty rituals. This kinetic installation features exfoliation fabrics imprinted with images of Korean whitening beauty product models from three distinct generations. The fabrics rotate at varying intensities and speeds, evoking the relentless pursuit of idealized beauty standards across time. By juxtaposing the mechanical and the corporeal, the work critiques societal pressures surrounding beauty and the cyclical nature of these ideals.

the woman (series)

**_happy factory (2024)_** is a kinetic sculpture critiquing beauty standards through the lens of industrial production. Bright, repetitive motions mimic assembly lines, highlighting the absurdity of endlessly pursuing perfection. Combining mechanical elements with organic forms, it creates a tension between artificiality and humanity, inviting viewers to reflect on how societal pressures shape identity and self-worth.

happy factory 

Primo Levi, an Auschwitz survivor and author, speaks in his memoirs : 'When one is dying, one is much too busy to think about death. All one’s organism is devoted to breathing. (...)… suicide is born from a feeling of guilt that no punishment has attenuated.’ 

‘Notes on Survival’ is created to embody the sensation of survival which is so precarious that a body forgets the choice of demise. The sculptural gestures are made from discarded industrial materials and tangled into hair and bones, which often are the only living evidence that identifies the dead and anonymous. The work remains in a state of permanent prostration and debasement, and is neither dead nor alive. However, by persisting to occupy a space and continuing transient time, it seeks to form a political statement that leads to reflection on the political subordination of the present and future tense.

Notes on Survival

Forest_Sound_Motor_Machine.mov (documentation video)

Kim Hankyul's project Forest\_Sound\_Motor\_ Machine.mov is a multi­media installation that travels across dimen­sions and resolutions, reality and simul­ation, sound and visuals. The exhibition acti­vely adapts disso­nance as its main method of expres­sion, questioning the truth­ful­ness of media, that is, the platform of repre­sen­tation for culture and identities that we most famil­iar­ly encounter in our daily lives. The work sonically mimics a soundscape of forest, built from a war veteran’s interview and his recounts on the events of death and injuries in forest drills. Detached percep­tion of reality following the repe­ti­tive screening of those events is embodied in the work through inconsistent and inauth­entic ripoffs to imitate a forest.

Forest_Sound_Motor_Machine.mov

M.Butterfly Vol.2: Death Proof thematises both global political fantasies of great power and questions of gender identity. Kim Hankyul takes up these motifs, detaches them from the narrative obligations of theatre and transforms them into a game of allusions and free associations and the choreography of robotic movement sequences.
  
  
https://esc.mur.at/en/projekt/mbutterfly-vol2-death-proof

M.Butterfly Vol.2 : Death Proof

Grandparents Day

Self-Portrait 1

Mother

Womb

Motherhood

MeWithGrandmas.jpeg

Heathers100thDayCelebration_May2001.jpeg

DadWithGrandparents_Seoul1960s.jpeg

Won Honorable Mention in Art&Color365 April 2023 Portrait competition. 

Not Your Fantasy

Bones of the Time We Have Not Entered Yet

Maman by Louise Petite-Bourgeois

**_I like to make fun and beautiful pictures with decorative value. My goal is to make your space more beautiful and make it fun for the viewers._**

Playboi

Kangaroo

Under the flower blossoms of Daffodils, a women felt warmth of the coming spring.

Under the easter daffodils

Zebra

Sasuke!

Vivienne

David

Giraffe

‘The Temple of the Golden Pavilion’ is a kinetic architecture in which the soundscape of wildfire is depicted through the motion of burnt timber and domestic objects. Based on the half-fictional story written by Mishima Yukio in the same title, in which a young clergyman puts fire on a temple from the frustration of not being able to own the beauty of it, the psychological landscape of fetish, desire, violence and euphoria is depicted in the feasible picture that surrounds the bodies within. The overall structure of the architecture was designed on the basis of the real image of the temple in Japan taken in the event of fire, while the inner construction of moving frames was creatively devised for the purpose of generating wanted sound outcome. The sound was made in mimetic resemblance to the sound of burning flames in tandem with the explosive emission of energy, removing the inside and outside of the architectural space through the motion of ephemerality.

The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Serpent (documentation video)

In the work **_‘Flight of the Bumblebee’_**, a classic music written by Rimsky-Korsakov in the same title is presented in a mechanical remake. By attributing each musical note into a separate vibration motor and using window panes as the speakers, the flow of bumblebees is realised in a vocal soundscape that surrounds the whole space.

Flight of the Bumblebee (documentation video)

The kinetic sound installation **_Jazz by Jazz_** aims to reproduce the syncopated sound of jazz through mechanical movement. In music, syncopation is defined as several rhythms played simultaneously, interrupting the regular flow of the beat.

Microphones are attached to different parts of several sculptural mechanisms, allowing sound to be amplified throughout the gallery space. Water condenses on a hot plate, causing a hissing sound. A vacuum cleaner activates a harmonica which is moved up and down in front of the vacuum hose by a motor. A water dispenser drips onto a microphone enveloped in plastic, creating regular, fast-paced percussion. In another part of the installation, rhythmic percussion is created by water droplets hitting two metal bowls, suspended at different heights.

Imperfections in each mechanism allow the rhythm of the soundscape to flow in and out of sync at random in real-time, thereby reproducing the unpredictable, syncopated rhythms of live improvised jazz. In conventional thinking, mechanical processes should be as predictable and clockwork-like as possible, thereby avoiding “bad” outcomes such as disproportionate wear on certain parts or stoppages in production processes. Instead, **_Jazz by Jazz_** focuses on the factors such as erroneous movement and sound, loss of systematic control and unpredictability as creative forces rather than indications of failure.

Jazz by Jazz (documentation video)

**_'Anything that isn’t Evolving is Dead'_** is a compositional set of musical automata that narrates deeply personal stories in the format of whispering. Departing from the anonymity of whispering that puts veils on age, name, ethnicity and gender, the real-life tales are narrated as a musical soliloquy with the instruments played by machine motions. Narrated tales have been collected over the years since 2018 from randomly chosen narrators, through the interview process without having fixed measures other than the format of whispering and the first question ‘What did you do on last Christmas?’. The format, working as a temporary device for building intimacy, has brought out a number of non-linear, retrograde stories from the individuals which summed up into the topics around death, disease, love, jealousy and accidents. Following each storyline, an individual music note was written and played out of the set of musical instruments with the ready-made objects and the casts of body parts. Through the loose navigation of tales and physical objects that fall out of developmental centres, the social telos of linear development are constantly replaced with the multiplicity of side-growing identities. The project is still ongoing without an end date, and the documentation video shows one set of a tale and a musical composition created in 2021.

Anything That isn't Evolving is Dead (documentation video)

In the work <The Tempest>, the soundscape of natural turmoil is cinematically realised through the sequential reflex of raw material. The formidable power of nature is sonically depicted in constant variations, by the sound made out of minimal motion of machineries. Atmospheric depiction of the sound is elaborated through the interactive light installation, which provides a prelude for each sonic sequence that follows. 

The work has stemmed from linguistic intention of creating a lexical gap between the non-consistent audio-visual experience, utilising the sonic force to expand the ocularcentric field of vision. Clinical look of the display outlined by cold industrial objects is expected to distance watchers from the dramatic pathos of sonic happenings, at an immediate instance of physical immersion.

The Tempest (documentation video)

**_‘M.Butterfly’_** is a sound kinetic theatre project where the theatric bodies and props are built to play automatic masquerade of gender bending theatre performance. Through the form of a traditional Beijing theatre ‘Peking theatre’ where the female roles are played by male actors, it will be interrogated how hegemonically the images of gender and Orient have been built and reproduced in Western patriarchal society. The gender bending role of a protagonist is presented through the perpetual performance by machinic assemblage, on the theatre setting built on the mystifying perspective of Western onlookers toward unknown Oriental bodies. The work was presented in KRAFT Bergen in 2022, as a solo exhibition.

M. Butterfly (documentation video)

**_AV Buddha_ (2022),** is an extensive kinetic sound installation in the form of a Buddha figure. Archive material on the horrors of the Korean War is presented on small mobile screens that make up the Buddha's face. The contrast between the spiritual and the mechanical is central: in the black-and-white films, we are confronted with marginalized groups that history has overlooked, while the Buddha figure is brought to life in a mechanical symphony, only to then fall silent. Hankyul links the work to the contemporary mediation of disasters and mass death, where the short time horizon in social media leaves no room for slow and more time-consuming processes such as grief. The title _AV Buddha_ refers to the iconic work _TV Buddha_ (1974) by the South Korean artist Nam June Paik, which, among other things, thematizes the relationship between East and West, religion and media society, surveillance and control.

AV Buddha (documentation video)

The work **_Olympia (of the Abused look and of False Consciousness)_**presents an

immersive installation where virtual and physical domains intersect in a landscape of screens, forms and gestures, rich with references, the most explicit being Dancing Baby (1996) (coined the first viral meme), computer icons, and Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863), which positioned lower-class bodies to the fore and as the holders of gaze.

Additionally, the kinetic sculptures constructed in steel build up a real-time soundscape,

merging with personal recordings. We are invited to uncover new protocols of subjectivity

based on ‘user identities’ in the spectacle of overlaid dimensions.

Olympia (of the Abused look and of False Consciousness)

Boys

Rugby

Shark

Cheetah

Axolotl

Riding

Gentlemen

Teddy

Johnnie

Snake

Refrigerator

Usman

Couch

shoe

Dustin & Paul

Bear

John

Rabbit

Couple

Chair

Crab

The Shape of Certain and Uncertain 

Now Extinct OO birds in Hawaiian Islands

True-Blue No.4

Photo campaign shot for the Berlin based jewelry brand Unbi

“Be seduced” 

A Life Without Form is an exploratory research into the origins of seashells, their economic & cultural value throughout history and the long-standing tradition of seashell collecting.  Seashells have been part of countless cultures and their use arguably predates the timeframe of what is commonly considered to be part of modern human history. Ranging from functional items such as currency and jewelry to being worshipped as symbols of wealth, fertility and strength. Their most prolific appearance in Europe came during the 16th century as a result of the colonial trade, exploration and exploitation by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Seashells as an exotic good became widely admired for their natural beauty, mathematical properties and as a reference towards god as well as gaining scientific noteworthiness through the study of Nature. Instigating a craze amongst the upper class of society, conchylomania caused a rapid adoption of seashells into private collections. Over time our affection for the aesthetics and beauty of seashells is still very much alive, yet their social value as a symbol of extreme wealth has shifted towards the realm of trinkets and tourism, a common good even used as a building material.  A Life Without Form consists of a series of 38 display cases in various sizes, containing a casting from the inside of a shell on one side. The unique shape of the inner chamber is directly linked to the former inhabitant and represents the living force that once resided inside. Across from this the corresponding seashell is presented, grounded down into powder. The act of turning these beautifully shaped and patterned objects into powder is intended as a reference to the natural processes of decay and transformation and a direct response to the ambiguity that comes with the traditional methods of preservation & collecting of seashells, which disregards or even results in the killing of the animal itself. As such it is also a reminder of the unseen living animal behind the shell, and how its importance within natural ecosystems is often overlooked.  Additionally A Life Without Form as a title & work is intended as a reference to Damien Hirst’s “Forms Without Life” which is characterized by its glass cabinet containing a range of ornate seashells from Thailand. In direct contrast to this, A Life Without Form doesn’t display any original seashells at all, but rather the highly sought after objects of desire & prestige are removed from the equation altogether. As such A Life Without Form is intended as a critical gesture on the concept of collecting itself. A remark on the behaviour of the past while simultaneously questioning our modern relationship, authenticity and perspective when dealing with natural objects of desire.

A Life Without Form 

The Flesh Yields; The Core Resists • Life in the Time of Corona

Unexpectedly the Coronavirus changed our world overnight. It changed our plans for the present; made us uncertain of the future; and it left us questioning how we had arrived where we were. 

Faced with mandated lockdowns and self-imposed isolation, we found ourselves looking for distractions to make it through day after day, week after week, and month after month of our monotonous existence. 

Cut off from our normal lives and person-to-person contact, the Internet, Cable TV, Twitter, Facebook, and Zoom became the distractions and “drugs” of choice for many. They became our electronic opiates that we used to numb the tedious repetition of what our daily lives had become. At first they helped us make it to tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, ad infinitum. They allowed us to vicariously remember the experiences of what life had been outside our safe bubble. They were pleasant enough distractions at first, but like having too much of any good thing they turned against us. 

Electronic and streaming media became our eyes, our ears, and our senses to the world outside our bubble. While our bubble might have protected us from the Coronavirus, our electronic opiates began allowing the excreta of humankind to seep into and pollute our once safe haven. 

The Coronavirus forced us to examine our mortality more closely than we may have ever done. Heaven, hell, reincarnation, ascendance, or the void of nothingness became part of everyday life. The future we had planned for ourselves no longer existed. Obsession with hand washing and sanitizing everything became daily activities. In pre-pandemic times we might have been diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) but this time the fear of germs was based on avoiding a deadly pathogen literally killing thousands daily. Our OCD was surpassed only by our daily need to devour our chosen electronic opiates.

Once the seepage had begun it was hard to avoid becoming stuck in the mire: the daily rants of an unstable and demented President; the street murder of a black man by a policeman caught on video; the riot and chaos of an attempt to steal a Presidential election; viral memes of QAnon conspiracy theories, each more unhinged and absurd than the one before; antivaxxers; virus super spreader events where ignorance was proudly flaunted; the ever presence of SARS-CoV-2 looming over us 24-7 like the Sword of Damocles. The threat of all of these browbeat us into pandemic fatigue and submission. 

I chose to reify this pandemic fatigue, and my resistance to succumb to the stresses and strains of the pandemic, with this series of self-portrait triptychs: “The Flesh Yields; The Core Resists.” In these poignant and disturbing self-portraits I metaphorically reveal myself to be naked and vulnerable to the risks and threats that the Time of Corona has exposed us to. The external forces insidiously pressed in and bound us, slowly depriving us of our voices, our vision, our hearing, our breath, and our raison d'être. It twisted our flesh forcing us to yield to its capricious whims. However besieged and beleaguered in our isolation, though, our core resists. Weary but unwilling to succumb to the pandemic’s darkness, exhausted and defiant, we find the persistence, the strength of will, and the endurance to fight back and carry on into the twilight of the dawn. 


The Flesh Yields; The Core Resists • Life in the Time of Corona - Triptych #1

Conversations
Recognizably humanoid these distinctive sentient beings are the newest members in my universe of Travelers. Their polycephalic form provides viewers with incalculable layers of significance. Unbound by normal human existence they echo the dynamics of reality and transcendence, of the cosmos, time, science, mythology, politics, gender identity, and even the dynamics of everyday life. They are also a manifestation of both the internal Conversations we have with ourselves and the external Conversations we have with others. As presented these Travelers are involved in “Conversations” with others and with themselves. Some of them paying close attention and some of them daydreaming and lost in thought.


Add

Kim Schoen

Opportunities

For Artists

ArtConnect

Support