HIPPOLYTE STUDIO
Yrjönkatu 8–10 (courtyard), 00120 Helsinki, +358 9 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Open: tue–fri 12–17, sat–sun 12–16

5.4.–28.4.2013
Hwanhee Kim
3 : 2

Hwanhee Kim’s recent practice deals with the physical form of the photograph. In the course of practice, actual photographs are manipulated by collecting, cutting and rearranging.

The exhibition title 3:2 stands for the aspect ratio of a single frame in 35mm film (36×24 mm), digital single-lens reflex camera sensors, standard photographic prints (10×15 cm) and postcards (also equivalent to a quarter of A4).

Employing this standard format, Kim explores the typical shape of consumer photographs, which is generally a rectangular plane. The physicality of the photograph is derived from a following idea: The frame is the body of the image. In this context, the notion of frame imbues not only a shape of frame that surrounds the picture but also a plane, which receives an image. Through the recent shift from analogue to digital, such an idea attempts to reorient the ontology of a photograph in the vast and somewhat chaotic flow of images in our mass-produced culture.

In Hippolyte Studio, a series of photo-objects and various aspect ratio drawings will be exhibited as if they were archaeological artefacts. In the compact yet intimate exhibition space viewers are invited to look closely at the kind of photographs we all once had.

Born in 1980, Seoul, South Korea, Hwanhee Kim is currently writing a MA thesis in Photography at Aalto University, Helsinki. She graduated BA and MA in Fine-Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (2000–2004). In 2013 her work will be exhibited at Gallery TAIK in Berlin, Photographic Centre Peri in Turku and Hippolyte Studio in Helsinki.