Post 42: Kyoungho Isaac Kim’s untitled painting
There’s a sense received from Isaac Kim’s painting that’s shared with that from observing a body of water. The sense calls attention to the dual nature of a surface and the depth that is beneath it, and the balance within this pair that can be strained but not severed. This painting’s body of water is one through which a rowboat is passing–more narrowly the spot of water over which the boat has just moved–now getting exposed out from under the stern. This spot communicates a feeling of unsteadiness, but only one resulting from, and still connected to, an action that is calm, slow. In this way, the whishing water feels contained by virtue of being determined by the movement of the boat. But what is this boat that doesn’t actually exist in relation to this painting? What of the fact that the only form of boat that could truthfully be at play here is one that is imaginary? Perhaps all that can be talked about of paintings are things that are in imaginary relation to them; that to be able ...