Untitled (Line) 2000.

"Untitled (Line)" appears to be a stretch of landscape- a shoreline separating land and sea, or a horizon between scenery and sky. However landscape/map as subject matter does not represent a specific place or location, rather, it evokes a sense of space and distance without geographical references. Although extracted from actual maps, the ambiguous rendering of scale and direction without consistency in each piece places the viewer between an awareness of small detail and a greater universal order. The panels are painted with varying hues of subtle blues, grays and greens, and precise and intricate coastlines are achieved by carving a relief directly into sheetrock to create a space that oscillates between positive and negative, specific and abstract.” -yk

"Leaving my country was not a simple task. I now realize that I never really left nor really arrived." -Young Kim

Korean-American artist Young Kim incorporated this poignant proclamation into her mixed-media installation "Distances" in 1992. This sentiment is at the heart of Kim's work. Since her emigration from Korea to the United States in 1974, she has negotiated a balance between the notion of belonging to two places or not to any place, of being Korean or American or neither, of displacement as well as a newfound sense of freedom. These thoughts often manifest themselves in Kim's art through the use of maps and archeological references. The genesis of her interest in maps can be traced to her move to the U.S. and her newly discovered thoughts about space - not so much geological, but psychological. . .

Kim's most recent work also deals with boundaries. The geographical locations in "Untitled (Line)" are based on real borders, whether they are coastlines or borders between countries that are not bound by water. However, Kim once again isolates these vast stretches of land, extracting them from their actual geographic location, and thereby abstracting their specificity to the general. Small passages of coast or country may be recognizable, but Kim's ambiguous sense of scale makes it impossible to identify specific places. These stretches of land may represent hundreds or thousands of miles. The viewer stands between an awareness of small details and a sense of some greater universal order.

To achieve the precise detail of these works, Kim traces the numerous coastlines and borders from a map and then traces those outlines onto panels of painted sheetrock. She transfers each intricate detail and then meticulously carves her relief directly into the sheetrock. The subtle blues, grays and greens in the panels suggest water and therefore we instinctually read these as coastlines. Installed on the gallery wall, these images oscillate between positive and negative space, increasing the ambiguity of place andscale. Taken completely out of context, Kim gives us the opportunity to thinkdifferently about the borders that divide and define all the nations of the world.

Eureka Fellowship Award Catalog 1999-2001, essay by Cathy Kimball, Executive Director and Chief Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art San José, San José, California.

Young Kim,  Installation of Untitled (Line), 12 panels, carved drywall, acrylic, dimensions variable, each 17 x 22 in. - 23 x 29 in.   

Eureka: New Art from the Bay Area, 2001,  Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA.

“My interest in maps can be traced to my experience of migration and rediscovered thoughts about space. Maps represent the world in miniature, in a scale that relates to the human body, and also become a stand-in site for memory, desire, sensation and imagination." -yk