Strangers checking your Google search history is too anxiety-inducing a situation for most people to even imagine. But Sandy Kim’s work has always been unfiltered, intimate, and unfailingly honest. Her new show is a series of photographs shunning digital perfection for mistakes and anomalies that appear yet more intriguing in today’s post-analog world. Shot around Los Angeles but evoking a visual travel diary — Kim’s youth has been one of constant movement up and down the West Coast, plus a post-grad stint in New York — the show encompasses portraits, landscapes, and glowing end frames of 35mm film. Oh, and a replica of her own workspace complete with Kim’s actual, unlocked desktop computer.
“I’ve recreated my entire studio from the pictures, love letters, parking tickets, etc tacked on the walls all the way to the little knick-knacks I’ve collected over the years, dating back from my San Francisco days and to my more recent times in L.A,” she tells us. Visitors are invited to dig into Kim’s archives, forging their own voyeuristic paths through her psychology and internal desires. Often, the most intriguing work is what isn’t posted to Instagram.
“This is where I’ve spent hours, days, weeks to years, working, editing, retouching, researching, learning, making books, creating art, emailing, Photoshopping, InDesign-ing, illustrating, dream weaving, watching YouTube videos for hours on ‘how to use Final Cut Pro,’ Facebook, Twitter, and everything in between,” Kim says. “My computer will be open to the public to explore all the folders, screenshots, videos, and images unfiltered.”
“Analog Brain” opens at Little Big Man Gallery in Los Angeles on January 14, 2017 at 6pm.
Credits
Text Hannah Ongley
Photography Sandy Kim