While we've all seen surreal sculptures before, we'd put money on the fact that you've never seen quite anything like this. There's something so wonderfully simple yet striking about Myeongbeom Kim's sculptures and art installations that you're just compelled to sit back and stare.
Looking through his work, what makes it all so striking and surreal is that Kim combines man-made elements with natural ones in a way that really makes you stop and think. A tree hanging by helium balloons? Goldfish swimming in a lightbulb? Who could have thought up such strange combinations and what is he trying to communicate through his work? (Hint: It's, generally, about breathing life into inanimate objects.)
Update: We got in touch with Kim to ask him for a statement. “I try to examine how my surroundings are perceived and remembered. To do this, I listen to a whisper from the objects within my surroundings. I attempt to have an intimate, private dialogue with the world, trying to concretely present the way things approach me, by using other mediums.
“To ask what an objects means to me is like asking what being I am. I have consistently experienced my surrounding objects from the perspective of life, growth, and decline, which lends vitality to my work.”
Take what you may from that interesting statement because (of course) like any great art, Kim wants you to find your own interpretation.
Kim has both an MFA in Sculpture from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA in Environmental Sculpture at the University of Seoul, South Korea which all lends to him coming up with these incredibly creative works of art. Love!
