“Cantabile”, Performance video, 2012, 5-minutes compilation version out of full 60-minutes film. (1 hr performance)

Performance
Fri, Sept 21st, 2012,  3:30pm
produced by Soo Kim
choreography by Tatyana Tenenbaum, and Rebeca Medina
photography by Chloe Seo, and Soo Kim
video
shot by Tatyana Tenenbaum, Soo Kim and Rebeca Medina
edited by Soo Kim

Act
Phase 1: Cantabile
Phase 2: The Piñata
Phase 3: Re-Installation: Unlearn

Cantabile
Solo Exhibition

Sept 15th-30th, 2012

Opening Reception
Sat, Sept 15th, 2012, 2:30-4:30pm

Tompkins Square New York Public Library
331 East 10th Street
New York, NY 10009-5099

-As if..
by Soo Kim

I painted a picture.
It is a piano with a small blanket gently placed on it.
It was an image that had been lingering in my head for a while.
I started wondering ‘where does this image come from?’
I decided to actually create the scene from my painting into real life.
I compare the original painting, and the artificial setting.
And then..

When you called its name,
a new meaning was layered in a second.
I pretend,
as if I didn’t know what the original meaning was.
I unlearn,
then I learn again.

Celebrate,
as if it was your birthday.
Even if only for a day,
you have every right to wish.
As the candies fall down from the piñata,
your wish might come true.

Cantabile
People say to the dreamer to snap out of the land of dreams.
The dreamer replies, “This is reality”.

Everything started with the questioning of “As if..”, which is also the title of Soo Kim’s recent work with the installation of a piñata. She created an intimate birthday party scene  by composing arrangement of installation, staged objects, paintings, changing spotlights, characters, and stories. The space becomes a stage, where a new story, that is both narrative and abstract is  created.

She takes her old paintings and re-creates scenes from the paintings into real life, then compares the very original idea, the paintings and the artificial setting. She asks “what happens when you trace down the very early imagination, and see it being imitated in a real life?” The idea of ‘imitation vs reality’ continues from her previous work of “Disguise (2011)”, in which there is a plot about a salesman buying a moustache to disguise himself  in order to see if  living as a different person would make him happier.

“Cantabile” is a style of singing, which is characterized by the easy and flowing tone of the composition, playing softly as if one were singing.  Soo Kim is softly orchestrating her works of site-specific installation, arranged objects, paintings, drawings, also in forms of performance and video. There is rhythm among the placements.

Given the fact that the exhibition space is a public library, she keeps faded color palettes, using colors such as faded orange, light blue or pink, and transforms the space into a timeless and banal setting.

She is collaborating with  New York based performing artists Tatiana Tenenbaum and Rebeca Medina for a performance piece, which comprises of 3 phases. The performance is filmed and separated into segments. It explores the unspoken message between the original and the imitated using sound, changes of lights, the movements of the body and video cameras within the set.