Mari Kim  韓國  b.1979

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畢業於墨爾本皇家理工大學創意媒體碩士。以 Eyedolls 大眼陶瓷娃娃人物系列著稱，從事多媒體創作。Mari Kim曾於韓國舉辦多次個展，在國際間也享有盛譽。她的作品被首爾美術館與慶南道立美術館典藏。

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Mari Kim是一位結合漫畫、迪士尼動畫、普普藝術為其創作語言的韓國藝術家。她作品的形象，來自於東、西方文化的混合體，她的創作，鞭辟入裡地反應出她對於流行文化的敏感度與觀眾所回饋的審美觀。

 

她在澳洲接受動畫的訓練，返回韓國後成功地成為一流的錄相導演，同時開始創作她具代表性的系列作品—大眼娃娃（Eyedoll，發音亦似日本對於偶像的稱呼”アイドル”），這些獨具風格的人物形象成為她創作繪畫的主角。

 

大眼娃娃系列的原型，體現了許多不同的女性主題，其涵蓋範圍包括年輕女生到真實、亦或是虛構的知名人物，例如英國女皇、柴契爾夫人、安潔莉娜裘莉、白雪公主和貓女等，這些人物被賦予豐富的色彩，裝飾性、圖像化的方式表現，有時背景則充滿文字，以高度風格化的塗鴉作為呈現。

 

這些充滿珠光寶氣的圖像，藝術家的創作手法，在於強調它們的平面化，與充滿明亮和閃亮的光澤，就像我們在百貨公司裡所看到成列的展示櫃，她們敘述的是購物的慾望和即時的滿足感。她們產出的方式和藝術家對於主題一貫的處理方式，無視於她們的現實狀態，傳遞出『一樣但是又不同』的訊息，就像我們在商店裡看到的手機、手錶，這些作品就是為了誘惑觀眾飢餓的雙眼。

 

相反地，藝術家曾提過她作品裡的威脅感，她對於表達大眾媒體包裝下的『邪惡小孩』背後的『扭曲童真』感興趣。近觀這些女人或女孩，她們都著某種險惡的物品，隱藏在誘人的包裝背後的真相，令一切更為人吃驚。如果對藝術家來說這些表相就是全部，那她必定透過這些表相，向我們傳達了許多有趣的內容。

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Mari Kim is a Korean artist who uses the language of Manga, Disney and Pop-Art to make her glossily realised paintings. Her images derive from a rich mixture of Western and Eastern cultural references. She produces pieces which explicitly reflect a pop sensibility and aesthetic back at her audience.She trained as an animator in Australia before moving back to Korea and embarking on a successful career as a video director. This is where she developed her signature ‘Eyedoll’ characters. These distinctive images became the protagonists of her painting project.

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The ‘Big Eye Doll’ archetype embodies a wide gallery of female subjects. These range from teenage girls to a variety of well known characters, both real and fictional, including The Queen, Margaret Thatcher, Angelina Jolie, Snow White and Cat Woman. These are depicted in a richly coloured, decorative, graphic manner. Sometimes the background is covered in text, rendered in the highly stylised forms of graffiti.

 

These lush and jewelled images, the graphic handling emphasizing their flatness, have the lustre of ‘bright and shiny’ consumables lined up in a department store display case for our delectation. They speak of acquisitive desire and instant gratification. Their formula of production and the uniform treatment of the subjects, irrespective of their actuality, makes for a message of ‘the same, but different’, like the ranges of mobile phones or watches we see in the store. The pictures are a lure for a hungry eye.

 

Contrastingly, the artist has spoken about a sense of threat in her work., saying that she is interested in expressing the ‘twisted innocence’ of ‘evil kids in mass media’. On closer inspection, these images of women and girls carry some more sinister freight after all. The fact that this is concealed in such an attractive package makes it all the more startling. If this is an artist for whom the surface is all, she has some interesting things to say about what that surface reveals to us.

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