Language
Beneath the Boundary, Things that Remain
Kim Jiana
Kim Jiana’s work explores the boundary between tradition and modernity, nature and technology—using earth and light as primary mediums.
Her process begins in an unusual way: she fires clay at over 1300°C to create ceramic sheets as thin as paper—then intentionally breaks them. These shards are not discarded remnants but accumulations of time and memory. Piece by piece, she reassembles them by hand into a large, unified surface.
Rather than seeking perfect form, Kim is drawn to the tactile intensity of rupture—the fracture, the trace, the interval. Through these fragmented materials, she evokes a sense of time that is felt rather than measured—inviting viewers into a meditative engagement with surface and space.
For this Biennale, she draws on two key concepts in ink painting: flow and bleed. Her installation translates these ideas into three-dimensional form. Ceramic fragments extend across walls, floor, and ceiling—spreading organically like ink blooming in water. In doing so, she transforms the flat notions of yohak (void) and fluidity into spatial language.
As visitors move through this wave of fragments, they encounter a physical sensation of motion and stillness—of spreading, stopping, and gently beginning again.
Through the materiality of clay, Kim Jiana reimagines concepts of rupture, residue, and flow as a contemporary sculptural vocabulary. In doing so, she expands the spirit of ink—not in medium, but in thought.
Her work becomes a quiet architecture of impermanence,
a living space where fracture itself becomes a form of continuity.
Her process begins in an unusual way: she fires clay at over 1300°C to create ceramic sheets as thin as paper—then intentionally breaks them. These shards are not discarded remnants but accumulations of time and memory. Piece by piece, she reassembles them by hand into a large, unified surface.
Rather than seeking perfect form, Kim is drawn to the tactile intensity of rupture—the fracture, the trace, the interval. Through these fragmented materials, she evokes a sense of time that is felt rather than measured—inviting viewers into a meditative engagement with surface and space.
For this Biennale, she draws on two key concepts in ink painting: flow and bleed. Her installation translates these ideas into three-dimensional form. Ceramic fragments extend across walls, floor, and ceiling—spreading organically like ink blooming in water. In doing so, she transforms the flat notions of yohak (void) and fluidity into spatial language.
As visitors move through this wave of fragments, they encounter a physical sensation of motion and stillness—of spreading, stopping, and gently beginning again.
Through the materiality of clay, Kim Jiana reimagines concepts of rupture, residue, and flow as a contemporary sculptural vocabulary. In doing so, she expands the spirit of ink—not in medium, but in thought.
Her work becomes a quiet architecture of impermanence,
a living space where fracture itself becomes a form of continuity.