Review

Museum program brings Kim Jongku's Mobile Landscape to Lawrence

From looking at Kim Jongku’s work, it is obvious that steel powder is his medium of choice.

Much of Kim’s paintings and other artwork include this material, which is created from an industrial grinding process and results in work that is naturally changing over time, he says.

Kim, of Seoul, South Korea, became the latest artist-in-residence at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas in Lawrence when he devoted two weeks to his art here in February. Kim spoke February 25 at the museum to a crowd of several dozen people to describe his work and what he had accomplished at the museum in the past two weeks — Kim “calls it a work that is never finished,” according to Kris Ercums, the museum’s Asian art curator.

Kim Jongku of Seoul, South Korea, recently completed a two-week artist-in-residency at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas.Photos: Chris Bronson, Shannon Ryan, and Ryan Waggoner, and courtesy of the Spencer Museum of Art

The Museum's Artist-In-Residency Program

Saralyn Hardy, director of the Spencer Museum of Art, says the international artist-in-residency program was prompted when Dr. Elizabeth Schultz, a retired KU English professor, went to Hardy in 2008 to discuss possible programs that could transform the museum. Together with Schultz’s interest in international art and the needs of the museum, the program was initiated in 2009, Hardy says. The museum’s first international artist-in-residency was Wang Tiande, of Shangai, China, who created original works of art on the museum’s front lawn. Kim is the second international artist-in-residence at the museum.

Schultz will begin funding the program in the fall with Dan Perjovschi’s residency. Since the program’s creation, the Freeman Foundation and William T. Kemper Foundation have provided funding.

Hardy says the artist-in-residency program promotes “the excitement and possibility that occurs in a museum that’s surrounded by objects in the past as well as questions of the present.”

She also says the artist-in-residency program fulfills two goals of the museum: to further the museum’s international work, and to internationally expand in one of the most intimate of ways — by bringing international artists to the University of Kansas.

“The central idea is that a museum is a wonderful place to experience culture across time and place,” Hardy says. The artist-in-residency program succeeds in “bringing people together in the community and at the university and beyond,” she says. It’s important to acknowledge artists as they relate to museums, she says, and the museum has made a heightened effort to partner with artists on creative projects.

Kim Jongku works on his painting with steel powder during his two-week artist-in-residency at the Spencer Museum of Art. Photos: Chris Bronson, Shannon Ryan, and Ryan Waggoner, and courtesy of the Spencer Museum of Art

Ercums says the museum’s hosting of artists-in-residence allows for a broader engagement with artists on every level, “creating a much more equal platform.”

Hardy says the museum plans to host at least one international artist-in-residence per year, with several other local and national artists serving as artists-in-residence throughout the year. Each artist typically spends one week to a month at the museum. The method of deciding of what artists will be at the museum is an intricate one, as well.

“There’s a dynamic process that includes the curatorial staff at the museum as well as faculty at KU, community members, and other advisors,” Hardy says. “So it’s a lively process of discussion and discovery.”

From March 29 to April 11, Qiu Anxiong, of Shangai, China, will be the museum’s next international artist-in-residence. His exhibition Qiu Anxiong: New Book of Mountains and Seas, is on view in the museum’s Central Court through May 30.

The museum also hosts national, regional, and local artists. Hardy says the museum has hosted at least 10 artists-in-residence outside of the international artist-in-residency program.

Kim Jongku completes his "Mobile Landscape" February 25 at the University of Kansas' Spencer Museum of Art after giving a lecture about his background and art. Photos: Chris Bronson, Shannon Ryan, and Ryan Waggoner, and courtesy of the Spencer Museum of Art

Kim's Residency

The 13-meter-long painting that Kim produced during his residency is on display at the museum and is Kim's largest work to date. Kim says he worked on the piece every day from February 15 to the day of the opening, February 25. He says he is never sure about how much time he will spend on a painting, and does not have specific goals for what his paintings will show up to be. He describes the process as “having a discussion with your painting.”

After his talk at the museum opening night, the audience was led to view Kim's painting, taking up most of the space in the Electronic Media Gallery on two facing walls. He then created his Mobile Landscape, which merges installation art and performance art, for an intimate crowd in the room. The piece begins with small piles of steel powder on the floor on a spotless workplace, with a camera positioned on the floor, facing toward the workspace. The scene — small piles of steel powder looking almost like mountains, with viewers’ and Kim's feet in the background — projects on the wall behind the piece. The room is packed with observers, with the smell of the steel powder from Kim's painting in the air.

Kim takes steel powder from the piles to create small Korean characters on the workplace, with large sweeping motions as well, to complete the Mobile Landscape. Each movement seems calculated. At the end of the presentation, he scatters the powder over the entire piece.

Kim's artwork will remain on view at the museum through June 25 in the Spencer’s Electronic Media Gallery.

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