Kim Suhwa ^(KR)

Kim Suhwa (b. 1990) explores the corporeality that arises between the body and the technological medium. The artist focuses on the glitches created by the human senses, which evolve more slowly compared to the rapidly advancing media technologies. Through this endeavor, Kim questions how connections and communication are facilitated through the body and media in contemporary society, and how the meaning of community is constructed and deconstructed within technology as it passes through the body. Kim’s work thoroughly examines the impact of technology on our corporeal experience and social relationships.

Kim has presented several performance works such as Meta Communication (Choreography Delivery Project, 2023), Meta Hands (Ob/Scene Festival, Seoul Art Space Mullae, Seoul, 2022), Pixelance (UK[REP]), Slovenia, 2022), Screen Graphy (Seoul Art Space Mullae, Seoul, 2021) and participated in projects such as Pipieline_TechLab (Seoul Artists’ Platform_New&Young, Seoul, 2022).

Performance for Gathering seminar 2025: Afterbody 

The afterbody is an important structural component located at the rear of the fuselage of a ship or aircraft that enhances the stability and controllability of the body. Kim expands on this notion and proposes a literal rendering of the “afterbody” as something that penetrates the physical body and transcends the boundaries of existence.

This performance can be said to exist inside the Wi-Fi signal of a cell phone, the “Android 9707.” A pre-existing performance (data) and the actual performance in front of our eyes are connected; therefore, it can be regarded as the materialization of existing data. Android 9707, an electromagnetic wave traveling at the speed of light, is represented as a familiar symbol, while at the same time it is physically reenacted through the act of the performer.

In today’s world, where hyper-connectivity has become the norm, electromagnetic waves transmit objects to us that are recorded as data. However, data traveling at the speed of light obliterates any longing, curiosity, doubt, and hesitation towards the physical body, setting its absence as the default mode. This performance reflects on virtual connections, juxtaposing a performance that already exists in data with one that takes place in front of our eyes, revealing the previously invisible boundary between an existence in data and an existence in reality.

Concept, Choreography, Performance: Kim Suhwa
Dramaturg: Jye-Hwei Lin
Technical Design/Production: Shin Gyomyung

This profile was last updated on the 18 March 2025.