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Like a shaman’s talisman: Sangdon Kim’s Rose Island (2009) and Bulgwangdong Totem (2011)
- Source: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Volume 3, Issue 3, Dec 2016, p. 295 - 303
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- 01 Dec 2016
Abstract
This article presents a close analysis of the Korean artist Sangdon Kim’s Rose Island (2009) and Bulgwangdong Totem (2011) within the broader context of a ‘shamanist turn’ in recent contemporary Korean art. As part of a larger project that examines the potential of local shamanist and animist practices to de-colonize the western model of modernity, Kim’s rich body of work foregrounds the agency of matter to reveal the contamination of landscape, a mimetic reconfiguration of alterity, and an anti-monumental model of sculpture. From a series of photographs to electronic images and sculptural objects, Kim’s work highlights the transformative exchange between humans and things to critique the logic of neo-liberal economic development and militarized modernity. Submitting a diverse ecology of images into an endless orbit of circulation, Sangdon Kim’s art offers a lens through which one can view the intersection between contemporary art and politics in South Korea.