김신일
Kim Shin-il (b.1971) is a Seoul-based artist whose practice centers on text-based sculpture, exploring the limits of human perception and the categorization of language. Based in Seoul, Kim Shin-il (born 1971) has developed a body of work centered on text sculpture, focusing on the limits of human perception and the categorization of language. He was nominated for the 2014 Korea Artist Prize at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), and has participated in numerous international biennials, including the 3rd Seville International Biennale (2008), the 5th Seoul International Media Art Biennale (2008), the Portland Biennial (2005), and the Singapore Biennale (2006). His works are included in the collections of major institutions such as the New Museum and Queens Museum in New York, as well as MMCA, the Seoul Museum of Art, and Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in Korea. Since 2021, he has also served as the artistic director of the Mindboom Festival.
"Language enables many things but also excludes many. Shin-il Kim pays attention to the gaps between language and the phenomenal world, chasing after the countless minds that have been fltered and trapped within the confnes of language. For Kim, art is the best means to retrieve those minds. A coincidental encounter with a letterpress storage cabinet at an antique store reigns over an indescribable array of colors. These colors are the hues of the ""garbage"" that the artist discovered in his previous works. Discarded as worthless, much like fltered minds, these colors still exist between the letterpress plates, radiating their own light to those who dare to look.
Shinil Kim, who has been exploring ways to transcend the limitations of `naming` through letter sculpture, poses questions about the universal values and standards that define and differentiate the world in this exhibition. In-between 0.013 to 0.6 sec (2024) and After 0.6 sec (2024) render the concept of a time system powerless, yet reveal the passage of time nonetheless. Meanwhile, Letter Size Gold Sheet (2024), created by compressing a sheet in the letter size, the standard for U.S. paper, made of gold—a symbol of absolute value—infinitely reflects within a box made entirely of mirrors, discussing the fictitious nature of absolute values.
Left Word Spoken
나무 활자틀, 에폭시, 28.5x39.5x3cm, 2023
Middle Word Spoken
나무 활자틀, 에폭시, 28.5x39.5x3cm, 2023
Right Word Spoken
나무 활자틀, 에폭시, 28.5x39.5x3cm, 2023
Time-12h 22m
clock, Parrafine, 25.8x25.8x4.7cm, 2019
When we perceive an object, we first receive it through our senses, and almost instantly move to identify what it is. Kim Shinil states that this automatic process of perception creates the framework which defines the world.
In Time-12h 22m, he fixes the hour and minute hands of a clock with a paraffin stamp engraved with the word “thought,” presenting a scene in which the natural flow of the world seems to halt the moment human perception intervenes.
*This work was supported by a research grant from Seoul Women’s University (2025-0233)
After 0.6sec
cloek, thread, 29cm diameter, 2024
Letter size gold sheet
24k Gold leaf, Acrylic half mirror, ABS, 157x35x35cm, 2024
In-between Five colors - Ma 0.6 sec-2025-1
Acrylic, ABS, 35.2 x 93.5 x 8.2cm
When we perceive an object, we first receive it through our senses, and almost instantly move to identify what it is. Kim Shinil states that this automatic process of perception creates the framework which defines the world.
In In-between Five colors - Ma 0.6 sec, the artist tries to capture the brief moment before judgment begins, pulling away from familiar modes of perception. He photographs recyclable waste and then stretches the images horizontally. As he does so, the objects lose their shapes, leaving only colors and textures. Observing that humans instinctively respond to form before anything else, Kim eliminates it entirely to propose a new way of relating to objects. By staying in this raw moment—before interpretation—the work encourages us to imagine beyond the frameworks of recognition. It becomes an act of liberation, expanding the boundaries of how we see and understand the world.
