In Limbo
In Limbo 002. 2014, Oil on Canvas, 48 x36 inches (122 x 91 cm)
In Limbo 003. 2014, Oil on Canvas, 48 x36 inches (122 x 91 cm)
In Limbo 004. 2014, Oil on Canvas, 48 x36 inches (122 x 91 cm)
All Sentient Beings, 2012, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 36 inches (122 x 91 cm)
Haircut, 2013, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 36 inches (122 x 91 cm)
In Limbo 001. 2013, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 36 inches (122 x 91 cm)
In Limbo 005. 2014, Oil on Canvas, 48 x36 inches (122 x 91 cm)
Artist Statement
In Limbo
Sumita Kim
During the time when I was creating the series, I often thought about someone I knew who had been in a vegetative state for many years hanging in a kind of limbo, and I considered what it would be like to live in such a state. At such times, tremendous sadness overwhelmed me; on the other hand, I wondered whether we all live in some form of limbo anyway, between life and death, in a transient existence.
In the midst of this experience of impermanence and the flawed nature of life, about which I often felt despair, I also managed to learn to accept, even appreciate, the inexorable aspect of life. This experience of acceptance, of connection with nature’s cycles, has brought me the unexpected feeling of peace and contentment, a sense of belonging in the larger ebb and flow of life.
Most of the paintings that I have created recently are self-portraits. In fact, I use the self-image as a prototype of human beings, regardless of age, gender, and race, as I believe the human experience and emotions have in their deepest core some overarching universality. It is this universality, as well as the themes of liminality and transience, that ride in the souls of these works.