PEACE. ONE LOVE, ONE COMPASSION

July 6th – 17th 2022

MAIN GALLERY & PROCESS GALLERY: Kim Seo-kyung, Kim Eun-sung, and Tai Kim

CELL GALLERY: Tai Kim

Thursday July 7, 6:00–9:30PM

Opening Reception

Roots Vibe’s chants performance 6:30PM

Saturday July 9 2:00–4:00PM

Artists talk by Kim Seokyung, Kim Eunsung, and Tai Kim

at Gallery 1313

July 17 3:00–4:00 PM

Closing performance: Roots Vibe Band’s reggae music

at Gallery 1313

The exhibition, Peace. One Love, One Compassion, at Gallery 1313, Toronto, embraces the theme of peace during troubled times. Coordinated by a Toronto-based Korean Canadian artist Tai Kim, the exhibition features Tai Kim’s paintings and installations and Korean artists Kim Seokyung and Kim Eunsung’s sculptures and statuettes.

Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung create work that address issues rising from Korea’s difficult history. Their sculptural installations portray various individuals who were sacrificed during the periods of Japanese occupation, independence movement, democratization movement, labour activism, and the US military intervention in Korea. Through their work, the artists highlight the brutality of war and colonization and its impact on women’s human rights violation. The artists installed their sculptures in and out of Korea, in collaboration with Korean communities abroad, generating empathy and controversies among the local and global communities. Through visual art, the artists promote discussion of historical justice and aim to foster peace.

The exhibition features Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung’s cast of Pyeonghwaui Sonyeosang (tr. the Statue of the Girl of Peace; commonly known as the “comfort women” memorial). The statue was first installed in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, as a commemoration of the 1000th-day Wednesday Protest, a weekly protest by the victims and supporters of the so-called “comfort women” calling for an official apology from the Japanese government. The “comfort women” is a euphemistic term that refers to the women who were forced into sexual slavery for the Imperial Japanese Army from the early 1930s to 1945. Since the original bronze statue was installed in Seoul in 2011, it became a symbol of the victims of sexual violence of the colonial period. As various versions of this statue were installed abroad, including the one at the Korean Canadian Cultural Association, in Toronto, Pyeonghwaui Sonyeosang became the symbol of international women’s solidarity against sexual violence against women during war and colonization.

In this exhibition, along with a Pyeonghwaui Sonyeosang, the Kims exhibit portrait busts of Korean, Chinese, and Indonesian victims/survivours of the “comfort women.” The show also displays a cast of Vietnam Pieta, a series of bronze statue that the artists created as a message of apology for the Vietnamese victims of civilian massacre and sexual violence committed by South Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War. Inspired by Nabi Gigeum (tr. butterfly fund), the fund raised by Korean “comfort women” survivours for the Vietnamese victims, Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung created Vietnam Pieta to deliver apology to Vietnamese victims as Korean citizens/individuals. Through the exhibition in Toronto, the artists invite the audience to contemplate on our responsibility in the colonial and imperial legacy and engage in the discussions of peace activism, state apology, and truth and reconciliation.

Tai Kim is a multi-disciplinary artist, painter, reggae musician, and a singer of the band Roots Vibe (an independent music production network of artists). Her works embody the theme of peace. She has created series of performances and paintings that twist the mythologies of Korean tradition and Rastafari—a religious and political movement that was developed in Jamaica from the 1930s and became an icon of reggae music.

Below is an excerpt from Dr. Tara Hyun Kyung Chung’s “Reflection on Tai Kim’s Arts,” June 6, 2022:

Tai Kim’s art works are the results of long fermentation of her Soul and deep firing of her Being through Life’s alchemy. In her work, we meet ancient grandmother goddesses of Korean Shamanism, Buddha, Jesus, “Jah” who is inherent God within each and everyone of us in Rastafarianism, and many mythological and historical angels, saints and prophets. Tai Kim wants to say fundamental message of “One Love” which makes peace, justice, and fierce solidarity possible in our world through her artistic symbols and narratives. She connects her personal sufferings and triumphs with historical traumas and victories of colonized subjects such as “Comfort Women” and enslaved African diasporas. Her images sing to our hearts like Bob Marley’s Reggae music: “No Woman, No Cry.” “Get Up. Stand Up. Stand Up for Your Rights.” “And….Let’s Get Together and Feel All Right.” Tai Kim’s arts open our hearts and inspire us to believe in our power to create lasting peace inside and outside of us. It is her “Redemption Song” for our historical moment. She connects the Heaven and the Earth as a Shaman Artist. I send my respect, love, and light to this “Wounded Healer,” Tai Kim, for this Peace and Compassion exhibition.

— Dr. Tara Hyun Kyung Chung, Union Theological Seminary New York City

Tai Kim’s vision of peace is exhibited through her paintings as well as opening and closing performances. The independent music network Roots Vibe will perform chant performance during the opening reception and reggae music during the closing event. This exhibition will invite the audience to think transnationally about the colonial history of Asian nations and today’s world globally. This exhibition will be a meaningful contribution to the Toronto community to think about truth and reconciliation with solidarity and empathy. The exhibition is about hope—endless hope in a troubled world.