News and Media

Published: Jun 23, 2010


ATLANTA, Georgia - SCAD and the National Museum of Women in the Arts present "The In-Between," an exhibition featuring two distinct yet interconnected sculptural installations by artist JuYeon Kim created with the assistance of SCAD students, as well as select faculty and the Fiber Guild of the Savannahs. The two meditative spaces on view at the ACA Gallery of SCA - one fashioned from embroidered panels and the other a wooden construction embellished with textural forms - feature thousands of figurative forms presented in an astounding array of poses and circumstances. Preliminary drawings and models by SCAD students are also on display.

"The In-Between" is the third project Kim has realized with SCAD. Kim began developing concepts for the new work, commissioned by SCAD, while in residence at the MacDowell Colony. In Spring 2010, Kim served as a visiting artist at SCAD Savannah, where she worked with students studying fiber arts, painting and sculpture to fully realize these collaborative works.

"When I came to the United States, I felt complete culture shock," said Kim. "I was struck by the duality of thinking between cultures, how every belief or custom has an opposite. I wanted to explore the space between those polarities." 

Inspired by the artist's and students' interpretation of the eighth-century Buddhist text "The Tibetan Book of the Dead," these ambitious works signify the range of human experience, reminding us of the volatility of the physical world and our illusory perception of it.

"This exhibit serves as a lasting monument to a truly transformative experience for SCAD students," said SCAD President Paula Wallace. "I wholeheartedly thank Wilhelmina Cole Holladay and Susan Fisher Sterling for their vision and commitment to advancing the work of women in the arts. As a public forum for the exhibition of women's work, the NMWA provides meaningful support for working artists everywhere and builds a celebrated legacy - one that will be enriched, no doubt, by this collaboration between SCAD students and the accomplished artist JuYeon Kim."

Seeking to bridge the gap between divergent cultural traditions, Kim began studying the bardo-the "in-between" space in Tibetan Buddhist practice. From this study she set forth on the journey of creating two sculptural installations for "The In-Between."

Kim describes "The In-Between" as her first "true collaboration" in which her SCAD student collaborators offered not only their technical skills but also their creative interpretations of the installations' themes. SCAD fibers professor Pamela Wiley described the collaborative: "There is no authority, no ownership. Authorship becomes dispersed through the group. There is individuality but also a sense of togetherness, layers of call and response, mark and remark."

Viewers are encouraged to enter the installations, and in doing so, to become the final participants in Kim's collaborative process.

"The In-Between" is part of SCAD's second annual deFINE ART program, the annual showcase of noted fine artists, art professionals, SCAD students and alumni and special guests in Savannah and Atlanta, taking place Feb. 22-26.

Kim was born in GwangJu, Korea, and earned art degrees from Hongik University in Seoul, Alfred University in Alfred, New York, and the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She is best known for her intricate paintings and sculptures that embody dualities among Eastern and Western aesthetics and ideas.

ACA Gallery of SCAD
Jan. 13-Feb. 27
Reception:  Feb. 22, 5:30 p.m.

For more information, visit www.scadexhibitions.com.