I have always imagined what my “heaven” would look like. Although I could not see the place, or dare to feel it with my fingers, I constantly have dreamed the “heaven” with all my possible imagination and intuition.
When I looked up the word, “heaven” in a dictionary, “heaven” was described as an utopia where God or “Absolute power” exist, or a place there is no limit, or the place where Christians believe to be saved after their deaths.
However, “heaven” depicted by Kim So-young in her works, is not directly to prove what faith is or what truth is. Rather, Kim has tried to show that heaven is the reflection of individuals’ favors and their desire in a form of paradise, specifically beyond time and space. She has mainly focused on describing this ideal space in her arts. Depends on what they have experienced from their surroundings, people imagine different ideal places; in other words, the context they are in, such as country, sex, religion, economical situation, and even their health, could immensely influence on their dream of ‘heaven.’ So it is possible that the image of ‘heaven’ for each individual would constantly be swayed by the change of environment. Indeed, ‘heaven’ or utopia is a very interesting concept since this can actively adjust to the change of one’s value without any limit.
In her first exhibition, “It Would be Heaven”, Kim has showed what heaven would look like to her personally. Kim has used collages, photos, and animation characters to describe her ideal place. Kim’s ‘heaven’ is full of pink: very luxurious, sweet and full of joy. It is very noticeable that anime characters are singing as a church quire in her heaven. So her heaven is somewhat fantastic as well as realistic.
However, from her last exhibition, some had opinion that Kim’s heaven did not look so real, or said “I can’t agree on your heaven, since my image of ‘heaven’ is very much so different from yours”. A few of them even expressed their doubts; “How could you call this “heaven”?” Since then Kim has started wondering what other people’s heaven would look like and what the real heaven should be like. She also has questioned what she missed from the ideal place. Throughout her works, Kim has asked people’s opinions to find what they really think about heaven; then, she tried to understand each individual’s ideal place without any prejudice. So she could prepare the next exhibition with others’ perspective on the image of heaven.
In this solo exhibition, Kim has titled her works as “Show Me Your Heaven” which signifies her intention to show how much the image of heaven could be different among people. The works in this exhibition reflect not only her thought of this magical place, but also the opinions from other people on heaven. Some may think, “Heaven is the place where there is no harm and no sorrow”, or “where sweet music is always on”, or “the place I can rest forever”. She has gained many ideas from those opinions about heaven so that she could sublimate those thought into art forms. Throughout this exhibition, Kim hopes those audiences who visit her exhibition to have a break from their work, and have a peaceful time to meditate what their utopia is while they are enjoying her works. (http://www.jakartaartawards.com/index.php?mib=lukisan.profile&id=140).
