"I am interested in tattoo as a metaphor for hidden desire or a kind of
compulsion engraved into human consciousness. I see the skin, or in some
case the monitor, as an extension of a canvas. My earlier tattoo
paintings were three dimensional canvases in the form of lumps of flesh
or parts of a body, such as a muscular arm. Tattoos can reflect
individual and collective reality or displace desire."
Kim Joon
The vivacious palette of aquatic blue merges the visual motifs that
should assume the three dimensionality of the environment in Stay- Snow
White (Lot 1539). The sofa and the background are fused in the same
intoxicating color, seemingly flattening the composition in an odd
solidity- a peculiar atmosphere classically seen in Surrealism. Kim Joon
describes moments of psychic intensity, conditioning it on the skin of
the headless protagonist, directing all focus on the engraved patterns
to narrate the fairytale of Snow White; its innocence overturned on the
bare skin of a submissively seated female, reluctant yet subtly tempted
by the erotically crimson hand, parallel to the wicked mother's
poisonous red apple.
The relationship between the two body is a schism between two types,
domestic and active, evil and innocent, apparent in the characters of
the tale and in society; but what Kim strives to narrate in his fantasy
realm is a mutual dialogue between their sexual deviance and social
transgression, hence, faithfully dedicating the scene to the convulsive
beauty of surrealist photography. Akin to the mannerism of Surrealism's
reality and fantasy, the constant death and resurrection of Snow White
is also profoundly implicative of a spiritual awakening, moreover
chances provided to reflect, in which Kim knowingly adopts its story to
bond the symbolic purpose of tattoo as a reflection on identity-
expression of one's individuality and status. Determined to illustrate
the efficient function of tattoos as a mode of psychological awareness
and as a channel for liberation of an individual's oppressed desire, Kim
extracts the deeply rooted human consciousness and voyeurism in Disney
animation to exploit the utopian characteristics of animation,
re-emphasizing again of the space between dream and reality; confinement
and liberation of conventional beliefs in his personal means to
resurrect and reflect on his true inner psyche behind the taboo walls of
society.
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