Wednesday Kim
Through sharing her perception of trauma, human psychology and identity, Wednesday Kim creates Digital Art with a human touch.
Isabella Helms | Ed Peter Traynor | 27 June 2020
Wednesday Kim (b. 1985, South Korea) is an interdisciplinary artist based in California. Kim creates artwork based on past experiences, trauma and human psychology. Using performance, installation, digital media and animation, Kim invites us to engage with the hidden forces of the unconscious mind and its place in contemporary culture. Her work also encapsulates the realities of motherhood and pregnancy, expressing her creative ideas on this important life milestone through New Media art.
Kim studied Fine Arts at the School Of Visual Arts in NYC and is now based in California. Since 2015, she co-founded De:Formal Gallery, an artist-run online platform promoting critical conversations in contemporary art. Her commitment to creating an online space for New Media artists to use residencies as a promotional channel gives us an insight into Kim’s passion for providing a space to create free online.
Current Event
Wednesday Kim, excerpt from Instagram (2021) © Courtesy of the artist.
What’s next?
June-July 2021, VR exhibition, The Rise of the Care Machines
Presented by De:Formal | Curator: Wednesday Kim | Co-curator: Flavia Visconte | Assistant technician : Sophia Rigg
Alongside co-founder Vincent Cy Chen, Kim has created De:Formal, a place to showcase some of the best rising talents on the Digital Art scene. Through encouraging their contemporaries by offering monthly residencies and frequent online and offline exhibitions, De:Formal has created a space for digital artists to form an artistic online community.
Described by both founders as a ‘love letter to and an experiment in net.art, digital art, and the internet’, De:Formal strives to create an inclusive environment that gives artists the freedom to be inspired by each other in light of social distancing and the ability to experiment with New Media art.
Kim’s work has provided a sense of community when artists have needed it most. In this time of great change, De:Formal has shown that art is a reason to come together, even if it is virtually. With an understanding that a community is built on support, De:Formal not only provides a platform for artists but also helps out with facilities such as Wix accounts and choices in how they present their final work.
Group Show, The Rise of the Care Machines (2021) © Courtesy of the artist.
Did you know?
Wednesday Kim was shortlisted for the 2018 Procreate Mother Art Prize, a prize initiative that supports (m)others within a space that celebrates the conversation surrounding maternity and its relationship to art. Kim’s representation of her own experience as a mother gives an honest account of the struggles some parents face. From postpartum depression to the trauma of childbirth, Kim’s work never shies away from the hard-hitting aspects of having children. Her residency at The Procreate Project evidently made a real impact on Kim’s work and she even collaborated with other (m)other artists that she met during her time with Procreate.
Featured Projects
Pieces of Me (2021)
Wednesday Kim, Cryptic Nostalgia and the Digital Undertakers (2021) Single-channel HD Video Edition 1 + 1 AP © Courtesy of the artist.
Kim is currently featured in TRANSFER’s show called Pieces of Me: NFT Exhibition that opened in April 2021. The exhibition is a particular response to the rapid rise of NFTs and the effect of this on the digital art market. The concept of this exhibition shines a light on tokens appreciation for Digital Art and its use of emerging technologies to open conversations about identity, rather than trading value.
For this exhibition, Transfer Gallery features Kim’s piece Cryptic Nostalgia and the Digital Undertakers (2021). Commenting on recent surges of violence and racism towards Asian Women in the United States, Kim’s hyper-realist HD animation portrays the troubling attitudes towards race that persist in the digital age.
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Wednesday Kim, Sleep-Deprived Worker (2020) video performances © Courtesy of the artist.
Sleep-Deprived Workers (2019-2020)
This work was made in collaboration with other (m)others that Kim met during her Procreate Mother Art Prize Residency in 2019. The installation conveys Kim’s relationship with postpartum depression and how a mother’s relationship with time and space is altered after giving birth. Critical conversations on identity in motherhood shine through in these video animations and connect a feeling of anxiety in the midst of the life-changing event of giving birth.
Wednesday Kim, Noctural Sounds (2020) video 4 min. © Courtesy of the artist.
Noctural Sounds (2020)
Playing on her fascination with the power of the human mind and intrusive thoughts, The Anteater’s Transmutation focuses on the subconsciousness and environments that only exist inside one’s imagination. In collaboration with Guiliana Rosso, the pair have created an exhibition that speaks visually to people’s nightmares. Through their chaotic imagery and eerie animations, Kim and Rosso open a door into their fears, traumas and past experiences.
Featured pieces such as Nocturnal Sounds is an audio representation of the types of intrusive thoughts that come to Kim day and night and the loud noises that accompany them. Through her video, Kim presents the consistency of these thoughts and their effects on the mind.
Wednesday Kim, Group Show: Well Now, WTF? The Clean Room (2020) GIF © Courtesy of the artist.
Well now, WTF? The Clean Room (2020)
In this exhibition, over eighty artists have been asked to respond to the impact of Covid 19 using GIFs and short videos. The online show speaks to how we are navigating this new way of living, with works split into virtual rooms with pandemic themed names. Within THE CLEAN ROOM, we can find Kim’s glitching baby, morphed into two bodies on a constant twitching loop. The anxiety that Kim depicts through this work relates to the overall theme of the show. It asks the viewer what are we supposed to do when the world around us has changed so dramatically? Kim’s contribution to this exhibition at a time when all the museums were closed, and we couldn’t connect to others in the art world, showed that Digital Art not only provides a solution to bring us together virtually but also perfectly articulates how many of us felt in these uncertain times.
Agora Podcast
In exclusivity for Agora Digital Art, listen to this podcast led by Isabella Helms, Digital Curator about the methods of curating Digital Art and focusing on the group show: The Rise of The Care Machines (2021) with the Artist and Curator, Wednesday Kim and co-Curator Flavia Visconte.
Key achievements
Wednesday Kim was among the shortlisted artists of the Mother Art Prize 2018.
Recent shows
Group shows
2021 The Rise of the Care Machines , De:Formal Gallery, US
2021 Pieces of Me: NFT Exhibition, TRANSFER, LA, US
2020 Sleep-Deprived Workers (2020), Procreate Project, London, UK
2020 Well Now, WTF? Silicon Valet, LA, US
