DOHEE KIM
Wall Wondering Floor
Wall Wondering Floor documents approximately one month of secretly entering and cleaning a burned-down brothel building in the Hawolgok 88 area.
Through prolonged physical labor, the artist accumulated temporal and sensory traces through essays, photographs, and video.
The work maintains silence toward the inexpressible while questioning hierarchies of value and meaning.
Wall Paper, 2015
I scrubbed the blackened wallpaper to find a pattern of roses underneath.
I scrubbed the rose wallpaper to find wildflowers underneath.
I scrubbed the follower wallpaper to find a vase on a table underneath.
I scrubbed the table wallpaper to find a woman with a hat of flowers underneath.
I scrubbed the woman wallpaper to find pink flower buds underneath.
I scrubbed the pink wallpaper to find black roses underneath.
I scrubbed the black rose wallpaper to find climbing roses underneath.
I scrubbed the climbing rose wallpaper to find concrete walls underneath.
October 2015
Kim Dohee
Wall_Wondering_Floor 2015
Wall_Wondering_Floor, 2022
2021 Soorim Art Prize Kim Dohee Solo Show
Burnt Pink, 2015
single channel video
Wall_Wondering_Floor, 2015
Howl88, 2019
Live Reading Performance, Cho Miyoung, Oro Minkyung, Kim Dohee
Instant Roof, Seoul
No one believes you can really keep a New Year's resolution. So, how arrogant you could be when blaming women for not leaving the streets where their lives are based. Are you brave enough to start a brand new life once again? Are you sure you’re stronger than those ladies?
When a family’s messed up, it is more likely for you to rely on something vile—something that would destroy you. You are supposed to be able to trust a man from nowhere giving you some pocket money. You would be into a total POS. Aunt’s food would taste more familiar than your mama’s who has allowed you to see the world. You would have no reason not to trust a gang. You had already witnessed your dad beating the shit out of your mother.
Some girl allowed the business owner to use her name on the document, and she ended up in prison for that. What no one can understand is that she would go there again. The reason is simple. At home, they would be treated like a whore. At the house, however, they would have a voice as a member.
Even though you knew they would stab your back and you couldn’t ever sleep well, there would be no home except for the brothel when you’re only told from the blood family saying, “Our lives would be better off without you.”
It’s not society that would give you a hand. But it’s your friends who you’d call “ma sis and my bro.” They would hold your hands. They’d share the food with you. They’d be the ones who would talk to you. What the heck are you supposed to learn from someone telling you, “Pave the way for your life”?
What a great mentor they would be, telling you about dreams, lives and shit. They would never give a shoulder to cry on. Are you naive enough to believe that you’d be able to make a difference for the people who have been through all the types of contempt and superiority complex? Do you actually believe they would trust you because you have a little lesson for them? Do you truly think society would be safer than the brothel?
Did you already forget you have also strived to find a place to feel empathy? You wouldn’t handle a mucker brother of yours. Are you sure you’d be standing with confidence before the girls? Can you see how repugnant it is to accept that those girls serving a role as a reminiscence of that you are full of shit? Aren’t you ardently telling those subhumans?
August 6, 2015
Kim Dohee