Artmia Foundation Hong Kong is now presenting artist Kim Jintaek’s new series “ ∞ ”, along with selection of his previous series “It has disappeared but it will never disappear” and “Is it, or is it not”. Worked as a carpenter by trade and studied sculpture in Kook Min University, Seoul, Kim Jintaek profoundly recognised that thousands of trees were cut for the sake of human’s convenience, and so much wood is wasted; thus through his experience of working with lumber, trees become a tool for his self reflection and meditation on the world. He started utilising the wasted wood shaves in his art work, and furthermore old metals, unwanted wood from demolished houses in Beijing, bones and coffee grounds etc. By making use of these useless items, the artist redefined them with a new meaning and value.
In “∞”, Kim Jintaek also utilised wood shavings on his canvas, embellished them with acrylics depicting imagery of stars in the night sky, or install unwanted items on the top, to indicate that the overly consumed items in our society will eventually return to the infinite universe. He discussed the relationship between time and space within the state of infinity and rehabilitation; he emerged himself into his art works, and into the space of infinity. He tried to use the form of art to present the state of infinity, leading the works to return to the form of a definite natural state, without worldly boundaries hence endow the works with infinite possibilities.
“ In the time and space of infinity, all is in a state of pure and natural,
where infinite possibilities exist.”
- Jintaek, Kim
