I Think There is a Wide Gap Between the Maker and the Consumer. Hee-ang Kim interviewed by Klimt02

Tell us about your background. What were your first influences to be creative and become an artist and what has drawn you to contemporary jewellery?
I had fun taking the last art jewelry class just before graduating from the undergraduate, and I thought I wanted to do more of it. I was graduating soon, so naturally I went to graduate school. While learning at graduate school, I decided to become a jeweler by looking at other jewelers and metalsmiths around me. As a senior and teacher, they have influenced me the most, and they show students how they live as jewelers and metalsmiths themselves. And the fact that contemporary jewelry is a wearable art is very compelling to me. The world of contemporary jewelry, created by unique textures and shapes that cannot be represented by precious metals and gems, felt like a new world that would break the existing concept of “jewelry” to me.
 
 
How important is networking for you in your professional practice and what are your preferred tools for this?
Participating in fairs is interesting because it is a good opportunity to meet a lot of people and to get to know how they see my work. Also, it is important to keep showing my work somewhere because the next exhibition is usually decided at an exhibition or a fair. Also, SNS is also an essential tool. I can expose my work to the public, and their kind messages sent to me through SNS is very encouraging. It is one of the reasons that I am thrilled to be in this world and want to continue doing it, knowing that I am not the only one who loves the world I am creating and there are people who loves my work somewhere in the world.
 
 
What are your general thoughts on the contemporary jewellery world, (education, market, development...), where do you see chances and where are dead ends?
What I realized as an artist is that there are very few collectors in this market. In particular, people often find it difficult to understand the work made with diverse materials other than precious metals or gems. Sometimes I think there is a wide gap between the maker and the consumer who actually buys the work. I would like to close the gap so that new customers enter the world of contemporary jewelry little by little. I’m in the stage of contemplating how I can do that with my work.
 

Thinking about your career, what role do technology and the digital play in your artistic development & communication?
My works are very analog and a bit far from technology and digital. However, it is hard to say that they are unrelated. They are actually quite close because much of my career has been helped by the Internet. Some visit my website, and others check my SNS and send messages directly. It is fair to say that public relations and communication through SNS have become one of the most important aspects for artists. And the Internet can be a new marketplace as well. These days, it is difficult to go abroad due to COVID-19, so the internet is becoming even more attractive.
 
 
How has your work changed over the past few years and what are you excited about these days?
The early works were dominated by mushrooms that did not actually exist but seemed to exist. As time passed, the motif of “mushroom” has not changed, but the scope has expanded to “what grows.” These days, my works don't necessarily look like mushrooms, but at first glance they have hints of a mushroom, a cactus, or a bud. They are further abstracted by emphasizing and omitting certain parts of their form. However, it does not mean that I do not make a specific type of mushroom. It's just one of many branches of my work. Recently, I have been enthusiastic about creating a series of shapes that only show the back of mushrooms and wrinkles. I love the feeling when I see the density of them.

Also, I am focusing on broadening the scope of what I can do. Now I am very slow and make a lot of errors, but I think that keep doing what I do is the best way to show my original works to the public.