Joeun Kim Aatchim
Drawn during a quiet period the artist calls “Sinking Inward,” Joeun Kim Aatchim gently departs from the labor-intensive refinement of traditional Korean silk painting. Instead, she treats silk organza as a draft—an intimate surface for daily meditative gestures.
For Minimally Invasive: Chapter 침 Crush, the silk is stitched at the corners to double-layered glass sheets: an anchor just strong enough to keep the drawing afloat. The installation keeps the silk sealed between plexiglass, protecting it from humidity. This preserves the daily drawings on silk, making them appear ‘frozen’ in time and space.
Aatchim explores memory and emotion through silk painting, writing, and audiovisual installation. She calls her method “Transparentism,” a drawing philosophy that unfolds like visual essays of woundedness, strength, and recovery.
Minimally Invasive: Chapter 침 Crush, 2025, Watercolor pencil, mineral pigment, genuine white gold leaf on silk, linen thread, artist’s frame, brass hardware, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles / New York. This work has been made possible with the generous support of François Ghebaly.
