Artists often dedicate their careers to exploring the limits of a certain material or medium. For the past eleven years, Yong Joo Kim has been doing just that: working with VELCRO® Brand products to create wearable art jewelry and sculptures.
Who is Yong Joo Kim?
Yong Joo Kim creates amazing wearable art with VELCRO® Brand hook and loop fasteners. From growing up in the busy city of Seoul, Korea to living in a quiet Rhode Island town for graduate school, Yong Joo’s environment allowed her the freedom to slow down and observe her day-to-day life. Her definition of beauty transformed itself from conventional standards to everyday objects. The more she worked with our fasteners, the more she unlocked the material’s artistry.
Yong Joo Kim’s work communicates beautiful things don’t have to be ostentatious. They don’t have to be gold or bejeweled. The value should instead be determined by an object’s ability to provoke thought, dialogue, and, ultimately, to bring about change.
How She Creates Her Wearable Art
She begins with the material, VELCRO® Brand ONE-WRAP® ties, and a pair of scissors. The fasteners are self-engaging, which allows her designs to take shape organically, resulting in the winding, sometimes whimsical, necklaces, brooches, and bracelets.
Each fastener is cut by hand, and the fiber art is sculpted in real-time. She then moves through her process and plays around with the shapes. As Yong Joo says, she begins to “reconfigure the ordinary.” Not only by using a fastener to make highly designed pieces but also by challenging everyday perceptions about worth and beauty.
“VELCRO® Brand products are about connection. The material itself – they connect with each other. In my work as well, I wanted to connect my audience. It’s all about connecting with each other and then challenging how we think. VELCRO® Brand products and my work are aimed at the same goal.”
Upcoming Exhibits of Her Wearable Art
Yong Joo Kim will showcase her art at The Double Solo Exhibition: Yong Joo Kim and Kasimir Oppermann at Galerie Biró in Munich, Germany.
The exhibition runs from June 19th to July 25th, 2020.
When you first come across Yong Joo’s work, you’re drawn to its unexpected nature and wowed by the graphic pieces’ simplicity. With such a unique perspective informing her work, there’s certainly more invention and innovation as she delves deeper into textile art.
