Key Sook Geum: Wire and Light

Elegant and ethereal, floating forms fill the space, combining the materiality of twisted wire and beads, crystals, and pearls with the ephemeral qualities of light and shadow. There is a sense of poetry, cathartic release, and peaceful movement in the stillness of KeySook Geum’s works. Life-sized sculptures of dresses, qipaos, and other forms of fashion hover suspended in the air or draw from the walls, solid yet weightless. Their quietness and glamour display a marked femininity and feminism, a mixture of strength and transparency, wire and light. Featuring a range of her life-sized fashion art sculptures, Wire and Light is visual poetry of delicate ‘lace’ and flowing ‘fabric’ meticulously constructed from twisted wire and beads. Geum’s sculptures display a fusion of Asian and Western aesthetics, traditional and functional forms, and contemporary flair, displaying a sense of romanticism with fairytale-like glamor. Often taking the form of female garments, her works transform our preconceived notions of fashion into dramatic statements. There is a thoughtful eloquence to her work that entices viewers to step close, to linger, and to marvel at the wire and light. KeySook Geum (금기숙, 琴基淑) is a Korean artist, designer, and educator. Currently a professor in the Department of Textile Art and Fashion Design at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea, she has a doctorate in textiles from Ewha Womans University (Seoul, Korea) and completed a post-doctorate fellowship at the University of Minnesota (Minnesota, United States). Having worked in fashion design and costuming, she began working with wire and art sculptures in 1996. Constructing both abstract and figurative forms, KeySook Geum has exhibited extensively in Berlin, Vienna, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong. She has also completed major commissions for Argo Group and Royal Caribbean International. Her winter 2014 Wire and Light solo exhibition at Art+ Shanghai Gallery marks her first exhibition in Shanghai.