Heecheon Kim: Double Poser

Kim’s work conflates virtual and physical realms, embracing yet questioning our obsession and trust in advanced technologies.

In his video works, Kim manipulates both filmed and found footage to challenge our habitual manner of processing visual and sensory information. They consider how our bodies, memories, emotions, identities, physical experiences and the banality of daily life are constructed and represented in digital space.

Using technologies such as GPS, augmented reality, virtual reality and face-swap applications, the artist creates ambiguous and, at times, decidedly nonsensical narratives.

This exhibition included a new moving image commission created using a ‘game engine’, which is a software platform for developing video games. It took inspiration from the brutalist architecture of the Hayward Gallery and brought together elements of computer-generated imagery, video game aesthetics and skateboarding culture.

Kim’s 2019 video work Deep in the Forking Tanks was also presented at this exhibition.

Heecheon Kim lives and works in Seoul. He was awarded the 2023 Hermès Foundation Missulsang Art Prize.