GRANDMA'S CABINET

GRANDMA’S CABINET A young boy stands before his grandmother’s mother-of-pearl cabinet. Just outside its door hangs a small ‘Norigae’ ornament. To the boy, this delicate object signals a shift—away from the world’s current, into a time of his own. Its long tassels remind him of the silky sway of hair. He strokes them, ties them, braids them, and lets them drift and flutter—unraveling, at his fingertips, the imaginations he had never dared to release. Dae Uk Kim’s work begins with this autobiographical memory. The sensations that endured despite repression, the secret, repetitive gestures of the hand—he gives form to these hidden worlds through a language of sculpture. In this exhibition, the artist envisions the space of Osisun as one large wardrobe. Viewers move from the outside world—marked by imposed order—into an inner space of imaginative release, where they encounter repressed emotions, forbidden identities, and forgotten gestures of childhood. The norigae, once a private symbol of imagination and self-expression, is transformed into totems, masks, ropes, and mobiles. At the center of the gallery stands a large, slowly rotating totem infused with the artist’s childhood wishes. Around it, five mask-like sculptures are arranged in a circle—like children holding hands and spinning around a revolving stage. Ascending to the second floor, visitors find a nearly eight-meter-long braid suspended in midair at varying heights. Passing through it evokes a strange, dreamlike transition. One mobile sculpture, moved solely by wind and gravity, captures the rhythm, focus, and quiet immersion the artist experienced while braiding hair as a child. For Dae-uk Kim, braiding became a quiet resistance—transforming suppressed desire into play, and reclaiming the senses through repetition. Rather than directly confronting gender binaries or fixed roles, he draws on embodied memories and playful habits, translating them into a sculptural language uniquely his own. Through rhythm, play, and repetition, he does not hide emotion but slowly weaves identity from within it. The resulting forms speak in a careful, intimate language—suggesting new ways of sensing and expressing the self. As Ivan Illich once wrote, “A child’s play holds the possibility of a being not yet defined by language.” This exhibition gives shape to the moment when the artist’s gestures, feelings, and long-repressed imagination first begin to take form. At the origin of it all is Grandma’s Cabinet—the place where every story begins. Within it lie not only hidden memories and emotions, but also a tender, liberating landscape of play. Rather than reject or overcome memories of repression, Dae-uk Kim gently embraces and entangles them—shaping memory and imagination through quiet, tactile gestures of remembrance. GRANDMA’S CABINET DAE UK KIM Solo Show (@_dae_uk_kim) Organized & Curated by TEAM.SEOHWA (@team.seohwa) Hosted by OSISUN (@osisun.ch)