In the Backspace /

LTR by Philippe Hyojung Kim

November 02 - December 02, 2023
Opening Reception / Thursday, November 02, 5–8pm

LTR is a collection of crayola crayon drawings, based on my most recent body of work, “(Un)Earthly Delights,” a series of cast plastic sculptures and collages made from drips and remnants from the casting.

There’s something perversely attractive about plastic, and I have been madly in love with it for many years. Perhaps it started out as a lingering curiosity, even a limerence, or maybe it was simply driven by a fetishizing desire. Just like in all relationships, human or otherwise, I recognize an essential need for periodic reflection and negotiations. In the process, I allow myself to be vulnerable, be blunt, and honestly consider the overall relationship, its history, and its potential. I ask myself, “where is my love life with this material and topic going? How’s it going? Is it healthy? Have I given the proper time and respect to this relationship, as much as it has given and provided for me?”

There is certainly a sense of evolution and growth from this relationship I have built. I cherish it and value all the research and dedication of time and labor poured over the years. But, I also acknowledge that this relationship is a privileged one, not only to work with plastic in this way, but to contemplate a future with it, especially given the time and place regarding this material and its notoriety. With these reflections in mind, I took a break from casting and found some other ways to study them, look at them, and spend time with them. I started drawing the plastic sculptures with a box of old crayola crayons I found buried away in the corner of my studio… only to realize eventually that these crayons were made with paraffin, another petroleum by-product.

So the question remains, “will my Long-Term Relationship with plastic continue to last or will it become something else LaTeR?” 

For now, I think I will stick around. 

These drawings are proving to me that it will change in many ways that I haven’t yet begun to see. Since plastic will outlast me and our love affair of a relationship, I will continue to carry on, until it either transforms into something else or until it kills me in the process LTR.

ARTIST BIO //

Philippe Hyojung Kim (b. 1989) grew up in a small town outside of Nashville, TN, and moved to Pacific Northwest in 2013. He experiments with various materials and mediums, in response to his immediate surroundings to make objects and environments that exist in the space between painting and sculpture. His work often references queer identity, artificiality, and language.

In his most recent body of work, titled (Un)Earthly Delights, Philippe collages plastic casts and remnants onto paper and acrylic in configurations that read at once as painting, text, and sculpture. He molds, casts, and reappropriates plastic to create playful, neon-saturated sculptures that allude to our cultural obsession with this most ubiquitous and climate-endangering material. In this process, he elevates this quotidian material, simultaneously giving it new life and highlighting the existential danger plastic poses. 

Philippe’s work has been exhibited nationally at galleries, museums, universities, and alternative art spaces across the US. He is a current member of SOIL Artist-Run Gallery (@soilart) and a co-founder/curator of Specialist (@specialist_sea), an experimental art gallery in downtown Seattle. He teaches art and design courses at Seattle Central College, Cornish College of the Arts, and Bellevue College. He also serves as one of the curators for Washington State Arts Commission (ARTSWA) and as a board member of King County Public Art Advisory Board at 4Culture, Seattle, WA. Philippe received his MFA in Painting from Central Washington University, and he currently lives and works in Seattle with his husband, Drew.