A native of Seoul, South Korea, who splits her time between Seoul and Chicago, Yong Joo Kim works at the intersection of installation art and wearable sculpture. She has dedicated her practice to exploring a deceptively simple question: “What does it mean to survive under pressure and weight?” Known in the art world for her pioneering use of Velcro hook-and-loop fasteners, Kim chose this material for two reasons: first, to survive as an artist by lowering the weight of financial responsibility associated with material and fabrication costs, and second, to challenge her ability to exist in a marketplace that pressures artists to use nothing but precious stones and metals.
