DOHEE KIM
The Beach under the Skin
This work originates from the daily labor of Yeongdo’s Kkangkkang Village, home to Korea’s first modern shipyards. The gallery’s white walls were ground down like rusted ship hulls, and the resulting dust was gathered on the floor like a shoreline.
Through vibration and abrasion, accumulated time and hidden narratives of the space are quietly revealed.
The Beach under the Skin, 2017, mixed media installation, variable dimensions, wall dust, paint, mixed materials
*Dohee Kim Solo Show 'Tongue Root' 2017.07.13-08.20, Jean Gallery, Seoul
Left in the care of my grandparents, I learned to wake each morning to the sound of rust being stripped from ships before I learned how to speak.
For hours, the grinders of the Kkangkkang ajummas sent clouds of rust powder into the air like sandstorms, peeling away barnacles, mussels, and layers of corrosion until the vessels’ inner flesh was exposed.
Beneath blue hulls, orange and red emerged.
Beneath red surfaces, blue and black appeared.
Countless irregular stains flowed like scars and untold stories.
Standing beneath a ship stripped of its old paint, my eyes burned from the red dust.
As the season reached its end, fresh paint was applied, and the ship’s name was written again.
2017. Dohee
The Beach under the SKin, 2017
The Beach under the Skin_Wadong, 2021 *2021 Gangwon Triennale, Wadong Elementary School
The Beach under the Skin_Bare Tree, 2018 *2018 Now, Here: Park Wan-seo, Seongbuk young art center