In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1957
- Birthplace
- Daegu
- Country
- South Korea
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- A Korean artist who develops sewing, wrapping and bodily stillness into works about movement and shared life.
Why this life matters
A Korean artist who develops sewing, wrapping and bodily stillness into works about movement and shared life.
Timeline
Key moments
Painting, sewing and a new method
Kimsooja was born in Daegu in 1957 and studied at Hongik University and in Paris. Sewing with her mother in 1983 became an important point of reflection about surface and lived experience. Used clothes and bedcovers offered materials already connected with bodies and personal histories. During a 1992–1993 residency at P.S.1 in New York, she began using bottari, the Korean bundles associated with carrying household goods. The shift connected her earlier artistic training with actions of wrapping, holding and moving.
The bundle takes a journey
In 1997 she travelled through Korea on a truck carrying bottari. A film preserved the journey, connecting the bundles’ practical association with moving home to an artistic investigation of travel and memory. The project widened a domestic action into a work with a changing landscape and a public route. Its materials remained ordinary fabric, but their arrangement and movement created a different kind of encounter. The work’s personal associations could also meet larger histories of migration and displacement.
Stillness and light as later directions
A Needle Woman, made across 1999–2001, placed the motionless artist within busy streets in several cities. Later installations used light to transform an entire space through colour and reflection. The Fukuoka Prize recognised her work in 2024. These developments show a practice extending well beyond a signature textile object. Wrapping, standing still and altering light each establish a relation between a body and its surroundings. Kimsooja’s contribution is to make those economical actions carry questions about how people inhabit a world in movement.
Sources for this section: [1]
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Kimsooja
- What is Kimsooja known for?
- A Korean artist who develops sewing, wrapping and bodily stillness into works about movement and shared life.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Otobong Nkanga
Compare Otobong Nkanga through the separate biography and evidence-led guide on this artist’s practice.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
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