KIM Ji Eun's Hermit Crab-ism collection began to take shape during her 2009 summer residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. While taking part in six residencies in the US over the duration of approximately one and a half years, the artist spent no more than two months in one location and changed homes as many as six times. The life as a stranger wandering from one place to another and continued change of scenery served as an inspiration and means of survival for the artist. 

 

 Hermit Crab-ism, which mirrors the attributes of areas she has resided in, was created from the realization that cityscapes we encounter every day are, in fact, the product of urban planning practices. The move from Seoul, a metropolitan city tightly controlled by a slew of regulations, to the suburban neighborhood of Bloomfield Hills near Detroit in the US motivated KIM to grow attentive to suburbanization, the spreading outwards of a city to its outskirts. Detroit, nicknamed Motor City, is mostly associated with the world's thriving automotive center. However, contrary to its glamorous image, it is in truth a decrepit city falling into despair, which can only be seriously noted by someone living in the city. That is why KIM came to place importance on exploring actual living conditions of each city she visited and on delving into what contributed to the formation of such conditions. Undoubtedly, the extensive framework called “environment” impacts an individual's lifestyle and way of thinking; but today's “environment” after all is designed and transformed according to the decisions made by members of society. 

 

 An extended stay in one location may compel us to take our surroundings for granted and make them look and feel monotonous as a painting that has never been shifted from its original position for years. Once a place becomes overly familiarized, it is not easy to retain a creative viewpoint or to take interest in its history or stories overshadowed by many stereotypes. Unfamiliarity signifies the beginning of work for KIM. Unfamiliarity can be experienced because she sets foot in the area for the first time, and she is capable of finding joy and pleasure in the trying process of adapting to the place she finds herself in. Each of KIM's pieces, created upon hands-on experiences and painstaking efforts to retrace history, may appear different on the outside as did her various residences, but the artist's intent to read into the environment that forms the basis of each place is well kept throughout the entire collection, building an important pillar of her identity. A wanderer, even after stepping into a society, can neither fully belong to that society nor live an isolated life as an outsider. However, KIM succeeds in obtaining and providing insight into the society due to the very fact that she retains the position of an outsider, completes her short stay, and moves on to the next location. Her continued wandering falls in line with the undefined role of an artist. KIM continues her journey of searching for inspirations for her work in new locations and unfamiliar environments, which represent the life of an artist who is often a drifter. The artist strives to identify her position and role as an artist in this society, the boundaries of which she believes are not clearly marked, and solutions emerge from the seemingly simple reinterpretation of her surroundings. 

 

 Each individual is closely interconnected with the social environment, constantly influencing each other. Our lives are never composed of or driven by our choices only. The spectrum of options offered to us may be already restricted by the given environment and structure. The traverse across KIM's Hermit Crab-ism will assuredly help us gain a new understanding of the environment in which we remain alive. ■ MOON Jung-Min