Ju Young Kim, Aeroplastics at Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Munich

“Aeroplastics” by Ju Young Kim, at Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Munich, 8/02 – 13/03/2024.

In Ju Young Kim s artistic practice, robust high-tech aircraft components merge with Art Nouveau elements made of glass, ceramics and metal, creating novel, symbolically recoded objects and installations.

eyond the diversity of the materials used, the works are characterized by a precise understanding of formal language, an interplay of different colors and the integration of surreal details. The AEROPLASTICS series includes a row of 3 seats equipped with glass tabletops on which bronze mussels have been placed, a set of highly reflective mirror frames, a decommissioned trolley assembled with cartographic symbols with a stained glass and a discarded piece of the wall of an airplane fuselage whose original window has been replaced by a stained glass window decoration and metal balcony structure. In her works, the elements and materials from architecture and transporta- tion are unexpectedly meet, assembled and weirdly blended in those rendezvous. The objects raise questions about the relativity of time and space in the context of transnation- al and transcontinental travel. As a means of transportation, the airplane functions as a link or interface between time zones and geographical borders. On its journey from one place to another, it crosses land and sea, leaving behind political, economic and cultural systems. The airplane thus becomes the embodiment of constant moments of transition and undefinable intermediate spaces – ambivalent spheres of nowhere and everywhere. For humans, this experience accumulates in a feeling of parallel existence and instability, forcing them to explore their own concepts of identity, belonging and home.

Just as the material composition of an aircraft is designed to withstand extreme environmental influences such as heat, cold, wind and rain, travellers must also be able to cope with all the changes, challenges and adversities that they encounter during their journey and at their respec- tive destinations.

The idea of constant transformation and dynamism is also manifested in the metaphorical meaning of the consistency of the glass elements – more precisely, in their fluidity. Contrary to what might appear to be the case, the substance is not a solid in the chemical-physical sense, but a kind of congealed liquid. During the cooling process of molten glass, there is no clear transition to an ordered state, but the molecules continue to move against each other and in random arrangements. Accordingly, glass is also constituted by a continuous mesomorphic state of aggregation between liquid and solid. The series of work is complemented by a limited edition of silver-shining souvenir pouches . Differ- ent types of container bags, as we typically know them from airplanes are repurposed and serve as storage containers for souvenirs of all kinds. Memories and experiences from past trips can be collected in them and preserved for the future. The salt in small, paper packet to season the food served on the plane is included.

The package has been printed with a picture of an elegant, glass salt shaker in Art Nouveau style.

The miniature products we used to have on the airplane are attempt to represent something not genuine which seems to be a ghost of actual object at an altitude of thousands of meters. Far away from the earth s surface and the natural habitat of mankind, simultaneously in the space of duality and in between, meaningfulness and significance are re-explored and redefined.