By Andrew Hamlin
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Artistic fulfillment can come from almost anywhere. For visual artist Lucy Kim, the local public library filled the gap between her artistic inspiration and concrete learning.
“I was surrounded by art growing up, but never in a way where I saw it as a viable career,” remembered Kim, whose exhibit “Mutant Optics” shows currently at Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery. “My mom took oil painting lessons as a hobby, and I would sometimes sit with her and draw. But I didn’t think much of it. It was just a part of my life. When I was a sophomore in high school, something changed and I started to take it very seriously.
“Thank goodness for the Bellevue Public Library. The art section was modest, but it had everything I needed at that time. I absorbed all of it, from how-to books, to books about jewelry and 1600s Dutch painting. I also went to the U-District theaters a lot to watch indie and foreign films.”
Asked how her ethnic heritage influences her life and work, Kim had mixed thoughts.
“According to my mom, I can be really Korean sometimes, and she seems surprised by it. But I also know that my Koreanness is not so straightforward. In my work, I don’t feel the need to prove my Koreanness or represent what Koreanness is, but I have no doubt that it’s a deep part of me even if I can’t pinpoint anything specific in my work.
“I think the more obvious influence is the way that I was repeatedly transplanted into different cultural situations, and constantly needing to adapt. Being in one cultural context, learning the social rules, adapting, then having to switch to new rules a few years later has a way of making one question the rules to begin with. My work tends to question social structures that feel natural, but are in fact constructed and engrained.”
With the help of scientists at MIT, Harvard, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Kim’s pioneered a new printing process using genetically modified bacterial cells, to produce melanin directly on paper. Her “Mutant Optics” exhibit focuses on imaging from the vanilla plant.
“When I think of vanilla as a flavor and scent, I think European and white. When we use the word ‘vanilla’ in conversation, we use it to mean ‘basic’ or ‘normal.’ And yet, once you learn the history and its origins, it is none of those things. It’s native to Mexico, and the Europeans took it to their colonies, where they tried to turn it into a major export. They were only able to do that because a 13-year-old enslaved boy named Edmond Albius figured out how to pollinate the flowers.
“Given how its history traces global colonial capitalism, which relied on weaponizing vision to justify racial hierarchies, I was struck by how visually unremarkable the plant was. It was tough to photograph for this reason. But I also didn’t want the show to present an iconic image of vanilla, which is why I decided to show the different parts and phases of it. I wanted appearance itself to be questioned in the context of this history, and to think about what the future holds with new technologies coming into play.”
She’s fulfilling a longtime ambition to bring her work to the Henry.
“I’ve been in in-depth conversation with the curator, Nina Bozicnik, for several years about this project. When she invited me to do a show last year, I was thrilled because I’ve loved the Henry since I was young. I also knew the space really well from having visited so many times. I knew right away that I wanted to go up in scale and install the prints in a more sculptural way than I had been up to that point.
“The actual work unfolded as I was making it. I more or less made one work at a time, which is unusual for me. I tend to work on a bunch of things all at once and finish them all at once. Because of the number of prints involved for each work, and the limits of the lab space, I couldn’t really do that for this show.”
She can also look forward to some vacation time, at long last.
“The opening of this show coincided with the start of my year-long sabbatical from teaching (I teach at Boston University), which I am so excited about! I also just received a Howard Foundation Fellowship to develop this work into 3D.
“I’ll begin my research on that at Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts as their artist-in-residence this fall. There’s a lot to look forward to.”
“Lucy Kim: Mutant Optics” shows through Feb. 2 at the Henry Art Gallery on the University of Washington campus.
For prices, hours, and other information, visit https://henryart.org/exhibitions/lucy-kim.