Kai Kim is a painter who reconfigures images from the Medieval and
Byzantine period with a contemporary interpretation. She uses
non-traditional painting medium of enamel paints on various metal surfaces
and linoleum tiles. Hugh Timlin, born in Detroit, began his study in sculpture and metals at the
Society of Arts and Crafts in 1967. In 1968 he changed from paths to study
English at Wayne State University for one year. Timlin returned to school at the
Center for Creative Studies in 1975 and received his BFA in sculpture in 1977.
Religious imagery is the predominant theme in Kai Kim's work
due to her fascination with religion dating back to her childhood. She is
concerned with the fall of Man and the notion of Good and Evil. Her
obsession with time and her fanatic religious imagery has brought her to the
act of ritual paintings. In Daily Eating Habits, she painted 1 saint per day
on silvers spoons for 61 consecutive days. For Feet, the Woman, and the
Sin (Floor Show), she painted 25 sq. ft. of linoleum tiles everyday for 35
consecutive days.
Her latest project entitled 100 faces of Good and Evil in 100 Days is
self-explanatory. Alternating from Good and Evil, she paints faces using
enamel paint on one square foot of linoleum tiles. Working from sketches,
she studies faces of people and from how good and evil has been
portrayed in art. Also her research in physiognomy has been an important
factor to this project. Aristotle wrote, men with small foreheads are fickle,
whereas if they are rounded or bulging out the owners are quick-tempered
What really is a good face?? Or how has the face of evil been
portrayed?? These are some of the questions she is posed with on a daily
basis.
IMAGE:
100 Faces of Good and Evil In 100 Days
Hugh Timlin has this to say about his work - Years ago at the Somerset Invitational, a sculptor, who looked younger
than I, came up to me and said he had wanted to meet me for a long time.
That struck me as curious since I really didn't think of myself as having
been around a long time. At any rate, the next comment struck me as even
more curious. He said that I must spend a lot of time planning my pieces. I
told him that I rarely if ever even did a sketch for my work. I had a lot of
stone pieces in that show and I have come to realize that people who don't
do stone think it's scary and difficult to work with. Well it's not. It's the
easiest way to make art. It's just difficult to move. Which is one of the
reasons most of my pieces are relatively small and come apart in pieces.
Big pieces of stone are also real expensive while small pieces are available
in rubble piles and demolition sites for the taking, in most instances.
Well planned? No.
Well conceived? Yes.
Like a child of a passionate love affair might be said to be well conceived.
Neither accident nor intention.
Charlie Parker said, 'Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your
wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.'
I guess that could be said about the approach I take to my work as well. My
work doesn't really 'mean' anything any more than music 'means'
anything. I don't generally work from concept to object. Meaning is
something I usually attribute after the fact, after I've had time to reflect on a
piece.
It's the process, not just of the making but of the living that is important to
me.
If I were dropped in the middle of a swamp I'd be more likely to make a mud
hut than import birch bark for a canoe. I tend to look around -- to make
something of what I'm in and more often than not these days that's been
heavier than mud.
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