Simplicity and Complexity

SIMPLICITY AND COMPLEXITY
Jin Eui Kim

Touring

27.04.24 – 23.06.24 — Aberystwyth Arts Centre

26.06.26 – 30.08.26 — The Base, Greenham

To plan your visit, see more here

Jin Eui Kim’s new solo exhibition explores how the perception of three-dimensional ceramic forms can be manipulated by the application of different tonal arrangements on surfaces. Depending on the arrangement, and by using various gradients of width, intervals, tone and contrast, optical effects can appear and thus significantly influence the perception of the actual three-dimensional forms. The optical effects on the ceramic surface can also be created in different circumstances, for example, the colour or tone of the background, the distance between the viewer and artwork or the location of light source. These can be crucial factors which influence the viewers experience of the artworks.

‘I create my works mainly using three different methods: wheel-throwing, hand-building and slip-casting.’

Illusions can appear more visible in particular circumstances, for example in a darker room as an awareness of wider surroundings become limited. Jin aims to make surfaces ambiguous and abstract so that the viewers can add their own reality. Creating uncertainty in and between concave and convex forms facilitates this as does the interplay between flattened or ridged, shaded or actual colour, furthering the illusory phenomena.

Jin also tries to disturb the viewer into not focusing on a particular area on the surface, by using repetition, which allows the sustained perception of ambiguity and the additional creation of illusions in the peripheral field of vision.  Creating identical widths of bands or blocks repetitively helps to create a visual experience which is unfocussed and increases the experiences of illusion. It is very important to keep the physical arrangement of lines as precise as possible to encourage these phenomena.