Statement
My art reflects a deep awareness of the global ecological environment, incorporating food packaging materials collected in the Northwest where I reside, along with leftover fabrics from my home in Korea. Through my work, I explore consistent ecological and feminine themes, evident in the concepts and materials I employ. I wash and patch recycled materials like avocado mesh, leftover fabrics, and plastic packaging to create artworks inspired by JOGAKBO, a Korean domestic textile tradition. JOGAKBO has a lineage of nameless female artisans, including my grandmother and mother, and it has been passed down to me as a diasporic artist, woman, and mother.
My practice across installation, textile, and collected materials construct a layered diasporic experience as a migrant. Moving into unknown places, embodying migration, and vulnerability as a diasporic individual, has made me consider recycled packaging as a precious material due to its diverse shapes, sizes, and textures with its availability. I apply a method akin to JOGAKBO crafting, fragmenting materials into smaller pieces and reassembling them into novel compositions. This process of revitalizing discarded materials propels me on a journey from the past to the present toward a sustainable future.
The sense of futurity in my work represents 'staying with trouble' in the backdrop of ecological collapse. As a socially engaged artist, I invite viewers to reflect on their relationship with ecology and consider ways to weave a more sustainable future.
Bio
Bella Yongok Kim (Gig Harbor, WA) established diverse practices across installation and textile, incorporating her influence in Korean domestic textile work Jogakbo, with conscious engagement with the environment. Her deeply personal and socially engaged work reflects on identity, migration, and the environment and considers a more sustainable future through caring for the everyday. After earning her MFA and BFA in Fiber Art and Design from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, she worked as a teacher and was an active member of a fiber artist group and the Korean Craft Council. Her artwork has been exhibited extensively including the Bainbridge Island Art Museum, Whatcom Art Museum, and Northwest Quilt and Fiber Art Museum among others, and her work is included in the Burke Museum, WA. She is the recipient of the Artist Trust GAP Award (2023), Southwest Merit Award (2023), People’s Choice from the Bainbridge Arts & Crafts (2021), and Honorable Mention Award (2022), and the National Special Art Award at the Korean Craft and Art Competition in Seoul, Korea (1990). In 2024, she will be featured at the Bainbridge Island Art Museum, WA.