DECAPOD - Meet the Artists - Juree Kim and Jessica Thornton

Ten years ago, as AirSpace Gallery was opening its doors for the first time, Stoke-on- Trent was a very different city. David Bethell and Andrew Branscombe opened the gallery as a space for artists to make and show new work, and as the city’s first non-commercial visual art gallery. Since opening, AirSpace has worked with hundreds of artists, both within the gallery and in the buildings and streets of the city and beyond.

Here we take the opportunity to reconnect with some of the fantastic artists and curators that we have built relationships with over the years, by asking them to nominate a rising star for inclusion in the Decapod exhibition. In this way we are continuing with our ethos of supporting the next generation of artists, something which has always been at the heart of what we do.

Decapod
Ten Years, Ten Selectors, Ten Artists.

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Juree Kim - selected by Neil Brownsword (2009)

Born in 1981 in Seoul, Korea, Juree Kim majored in sculpture at Kyung Hee University. She had her rst solo show in 2005 at Ga Gallery, and in 2011, Kim was invited to show at The Second Chongging Asia Young Artist Biennale. Working with paint, sculpture and lm, Juree Kim’s work explores themes of temporality and ephemera in particular in concern to her social and economic surroundings.


         

 
"The work is about disappearance – it is about ephemerality. Therefore dry unfired clay disappears when put into water. The artwork focuses on dual existence. The constructions of buildings reduced in scale are made out of clay and upon completion of making they are destined to de-construct by disappearing slowing when encountered with water. This natural substance is the destroyer yet at the same time life is incorporated in the process of disappearance. The word ‘Hwi-gyoung’ is significant for ‘disappearing landscape’ but at the same time it takes after the name of an old district that is on the verge of disappearing in Korea. The work is about the disappearance of architecture and different urban features of the 1970s and 1980s, with the effect caused largely by capitalism. These architectural characteristics carry the spirit and culture of a particular period in Korea.

The structure made of soil is eroded by the artificially poured water and finally melts down. As an artist, I cannot intervene in the process of the encounter between earth and water, whatsoever. Solely the interactions between the two matters create my work. Water becomes muddy water and the once solid soil becomes soft and fluid, losing its original shape. The pair becomes a single body, destructing themselves in the completion of self-denial. Water symbolizes life but at the same time, it can be a threat to life. All living beings need water to survive but sometimes, water covers up everything and takes our lives. In my work, 'water' is a double-faced actor: destroyer and the existence completing the work."

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Jessica Thornton - selected by Doyle & Mallinson (2010)
 

Jessica Thornton’s work explores the differences between culture and nature, investigating the way that our understanding of nature is changing. With our effects on nature becoming more and more apparent in contemporary times, her work comments on how we can attempt to co-exist. By engaging audiences with synthesised interactions, the absurdity in our continued attempts to dominate and domesticate is thrown into question.

Her installations often refer to the domesticated space. The inanimate object is on the boundary of becoming personified after being subjected to everyday human processes, and so the works often portray a situation on the brink of retaliation. Many of her works incite a feeling of frustration and play with the idea of failure. This reflects a loss of control often felt by the artist over her work, as well as a fear of what a loss of control over nature would mean.

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