Ko-Am and New York native Grace Kim explores Seoul’s love hotels in an intriguing series of photographs.
Also in Flavorwire is a post on Do’ol‘s daughter, photographer Kim Miru, who is best known for getting her kit off in the underbellies of major urban areas. She does really fascinating work, especially if you’re into urban exploration and old architecture — take some time to watch this lecture, which is quite, quite interesting:
Definitely looks like her dad.
{ 38 comments… read them below or add one }
Kim Miru should try some urban exploration in Chicago.
interesting stuff. Oh, the buildings were ok, too, I suppose
She, too, wonjung choolsan. There is always the option of forfeiting US citizenship at the tender age of 20, I think, with her father not intending to set up shop in US and all. Personally never saw anyone do that.
Ironically, Do-ol’s household shares a common homeland as my household. What a disgrace. I didn’t know that till I looked it up today.
She is a michinyun.
I suppose it is art, but it’s the equivalent of doing a nude spread in a sleezy magazine for sale.
I shudder to think of who might have whacked off looking at her pictures. Think Do-ol’s face.
The chick needs to take a speech class or something. Her nervousness and constant swallowing takes away from her presentation.
Oh, and I HOPE her dad didn’t pay for her education. Man, her parents must be pissed.
Man, have you guys missed the boat on this one. Miru Kim is an awesome up and coming artist that reminds me a lot of a young Yoko Ono. (And lest you are tempted to “dis” Ono as well, consider her early work before you do so.)
One of the great things about Korean women is that as much as Western and Korean men try to objectify them, they keep coming back to prove the guys wrong. Miru Kim has some serious game. If ya’ll don’t dig this type of art, fine, but give this gal credit where it’s do. Her exploration of the beautiful set off against the industrial is brilliant. That’s what you SHOULD have taken away from this.
DLB
Give us a break. In most of the photos, Miru Kim scarcely registers as being present at all. They’re like a game of “Where’s Waldo?” where you’re looking for the insignificant living human figure juxtaposed against massive ruins or structures. The nudity is there for contrast, not for your masturbatory enjoyment. Miru’s photos are beautiful, if stark, and if I were the parent who’d paid for her education I’d be glad that my daughter had found her voice.
Parents exist to serve their children, not the other way around. My job is to make her dreams come true.
Brendon,
I’m not saying that I don’t like her art. I think it’s interesting. I use to be a photographer, and I guess old buildings by themselves are just too boring.
Anyways. your thoughts above is a relatively modern, neo-liberal ideal. For most of human history, apart from the natural urges of sex and nurturing, parents had kids to secure their future in old age. Parents started to think like you once Social Security came around…
The love motel pictures were . . . meh. Love motels are awesome and the tackiness is delightful. No need to get all artsy-fartsy with it.
Brendon, no way.
Like Waldo?
It’s way more obvious than that.
It’s wired into our instincts.
What if a Korean male replaced all those pictures?
You be disappointed if he didn’t clearly present his 고추?
Generally speaking, in most Western cultures the female nude figure is considered to be more aesthetically pleasing and non-threatening than the male. I can’t speak for the Muslim world, which seems to have a problem both with women and with images of people. But I’ve noticed that even here in Lucky Penis Land, the female nude is more “artistic”.
Anyway, at the scale of Miru Kim’s photography, whether or not the model is male or female seems somewhat irrelevant — moreso because in many of her shots, Ms. Kim appears to be strategically covering her private parts.
The cheap shot Marmot’s Hole answer is that if it were a Korean male, we still wouldn’t have to worry too much about being shown a penis.
In one simple line (#10), not only did I take a small shot at penisboy, but set Brendon to slander the males of an entire race.
How’s THAT for posting efficiency?
I am indeed ashamed of the line, but since it’s completely in keeping with the tone of this place, I couldn’t resist airing it.
@ #3 If you are wondering who is wanking to these pictures, you need to l0ok inward. It is tasteful art.
Thank you for posting this. Miru Kim’s work is fascinating and she presents it in a very articulate, if nervous manner. She is right on the money about why she uses a nude in her self portraits, and it totally works. Anyone who would suggest this is pornography is just plain ridiculous and probably thinks Sarah Palin is a groovy gal.
However, I strongly suspect Miru is making a career out of violating trespass laws and may end up damaging archeological artifacts or getting herself (or an attempted rescue personnel) killed by going somewhere she isn’t supposed to be. She may come by that instinct naturally, as those of us here in Korea know first hand, safety guidelines are frequently ignored by one and all.
She’s a gutsy, intelligent woman and I hope she’s careful.
I love her work, and she definitely has an appreciation for urban history, but I kept on thinking to myself, “Jesus, I hope she got her tetanus shots…”
If this stuff registers high on your Spank-O-Meter then that’s your problem, not hers. That’s some excellent stuff she has going on. And that Manhattan Bridge shot: “Holy vertigo, Batman!”
Now the love hotel stuff–eh, what’s up, doc?
“For most of human history, apart from the natural urges of sex and nurturing, parents had kids to secure their future in old age.”
The idea of “old age” does not exist in 99.99999999999999999% of human history.
Well, the usual Korean reaction male or female is, “I guess that IS art, but I feel sorry for her father. She’s nuts.”
Your reaction coming from the nation that created playboy, is “She’s beautiful, that’s tasteful nude.”
I think the guys who are saying she’s beautiful probably have sticky fingers.
Me, personally, I can swear to my religion that I did not.
Let me ask you this. I apologize in advance, but the rule makers couldn’t resist, either. Why did Michelangelo make it so small? Is this pleasing to you, too? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Michelangelos_David.jpg
WJK
Again with the dick size.
Speaking of Playboy…
WJK’s turn ons: big dicks, thick dicks, skinny dicks, dicks, clitoris long enough to look like dicks
WJK’s turn offs: small dicks, wonjung choolsan, Japanese, and Americans (especially Korean Americans)
Good grief, brother, you’ve got a problem. These are not “nude photos”. They’re landscape studies with a nude person in them as a point 0f contrast to the non-living objects.
With respect to Michelangelo’s David, you should be informed that it’s not a sculpture of a penis. It’s a sculpture of a man, and men incidentally happen to have a penis. There’s more to a man than just a penis, though, no matter what your father told you.
Enough people are taking on wjk here, but to #4, as far as I can tell she was speaking at TED, probably the most amazing conglomeration of people I can think of. I do a lot of speaking in public and feel comfortable, but if I were in front of a TED audience, I’d be pretty damn nervous too:
http://www.ted.com/
If y’all aren’t familiar with TED, I suggest perusing the site when you have some time to spare. Terrific stuff there.
hey, can you honestly say that the Love Motel photos are even remotely similar to the New York City photos with a nude Korean female?
Hell, no.
If you say otherwise, you’re being dishonest.
It’s a different game.
It’s more of porn than art.
Waldo? I can see nipples and bush.
Waldo is much harder to find as I tried today incidentally.
I had to ask for help.
Hey, if you want to call it Waldo, that’s fine.
It’s porno, not Waldo.
Her father poured money into her private highschool so she could shoot her own porn. She should be ashamed.
I could have made the same photos standing next to a shit hole.
she’s not comfortable and can’t even make eye contact to an audience because everyone there has seen her naked.
that proves she didn’t intend to be a porno model, but that’s the effect, and it slips right thru when the men crackle up the loudest when told the tale of guhji’s ‘unsual day joke’.
wjk: She has likely given up on trying to please you (Koreans). Her spoken English is about 10 times better than your written English which probably betrays her cultural affiliation. There’s a reason she’s not speaking in Korean. She’s not talking to 편태 아짜씨들 (perverted Korean men who are old enough to be married). Her art is well received in a realm you aren’t equipped to grasp… the rest of the world.
Exhibitionism used to be considered a form of mental illness. Now it’s apparently art, on the same level IMHO as the Jerry Springer show. I feel sorry for the poor pixelated “artist.
Some people think pedophile rapists who unlawfully moved to France to avoid incarceration should be let go with no punishment… just because they were involved in a bunch of second rate films…
It’s a big ugly world.
Asian chick capitalizing on Yellow Fever does not an artist make…
Man, she really resembles her dad. I hope that wasn’t the cause of any mental anguish during her formative years…
#25,
And your written Korean…..no, just kidding – I agree with your comment in toto, but isn’t adjosshi spelled differently (I’m dictionaryless at this time)?
변태 아저씨들.
she’s ok(from the talk) but her art’s just so-so. nothing ground-breaking or inspirational at least, to me….i don’t think it’s pornographic but i generally find women artists who cannot find any subject besides themselves boring, i.e. yoko ono, tracy emin, frieda etc. i know she probably doesn’t mean herself to be the focus piece but still.. i like camille claudel and berthe morisot etc..
i agree with yuna. her work is hardly notable except there’s a chick with no clothes on in them.
@Carr
Even disregarding the private parts, the statue of David is artistically worthy, whether it’s the conception (the pose of contemplation is part of it’s allure, I learned in college) or its symbolism.
Almost objectively so it’s a piece of fantastic art.
Now this chick’s photos seem to not be that artistic or extraordinary. It seems to me that as a publicity and schtick ploy she disrobed. And plenty of closet pervs or “I want to pretend I get this shitty stuff that others say is avante garde so I seem cool”-types are probably the only ones who don’t see this for what it is: not even honorable mention in the breast of the rest.
“Let me ask you this. I apologize in advance, but the rule makers couldn’t resist, either. Why did Michelangelo make it so small? Is this pleasing to you, too? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi….._David.jpg”
You’ve never thought the masons yard may have been a bit cold buck naked in winter. I though you were a urologist.
Alternatively look carefully at the scars on his eyelids
“Her father poured money into her private highschool so she could shoot her own porn. She should be ashamed.”
Rubbish, she an entrepeneur, failure would have been being forced to shoot other peoples porn.
“i agree with yuna. her work is hardly notable except there’s a chick with no clothes on in them.”
This is why you’re lonely can’t get past looking at the cleavage to see whats behind.
wjk,
“I suppose it is art, but it’s the equivalent of doing a nude spread in a sleezy magazine for sale.”
How fucking puritanical of you to say so.
“she’s not comfortable and can’t even make eye contact to an audience because everyone there has seen her naked. ”
I sure would love to see you talk in front of a large audience. I imagine there would be a lot of hesitation and uncomfortable silence, maybe even a puddle of urine behind the podium.
DLBarch,
I read somewhere that John Lennon fell in love with Yoko Ono, the artist, before he had even met the woman.
“failure would have been being forced to shoot other peoples porn”
Whatever. I would all be driving a much nicer car if I were a porn director.
“failure would have been being forced to shoot other peoples porn”
Whatever. I would be driving a much nicer car if I were a porn director.
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