“While before I felt as if I were observing and documenting my online experiences and the avatars that I encountered, I am now creating my own stories and leaning into this world of fantasy as a source of endless potential.” Tae Kim.
Tae Kim’s ethereal, otherworldly figures, adorned with multiple heads, eyes, and limbs, seem to flicker and shift—caught in an endless cycle of transformation that allows them to embody various forms and states simultaneously. In her solo exhibition My Child’s Nth Finger at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery Berlin, the Korean artist delves deeper into her ongoing exploration of hybridity, challenging the ways we define and measure humanity in the digital era. As Kim envisions fluid, ever-changing forms of representation, she compares the portraiture process to childbirth, referring to her characters as her “babies.” The exhibition’s title evokes both the intimacy and labor of creation, while also hinting at an evolving process or an unknowable future—one that holds the potential to be both transformative and monstrous.
For her latest series of paintings, Kim draws inspiration not only from the visual language of online avatars and gaming but also from mythological tales and creatures, particularly the nine-tailed fox from East Asian folklore, renowned for its shape-shifting abilities. In Dysfunctional Night, the fox serves as the figure’s spirit or companion, its complex, multi-bodied form creating a whirlwind of color and motion, symbolizing a volatile, ever-changing state. At the center of the composition, the figure itself morphs between human, animal, and cyborg forms. Like all of Kim’s characters, this figure is androgynous with translucent skin, suggesting an existence that transcends gender and race. Yet, the faint outline of its spinal structure evokes human fragility and imperfection, grounding the fantastical in the reality of physicality.
The exhibition is on at Kristin Hjellegjerde Berlin. 28 March – 26 April
