Today we’d like to introduce you to Sujin Kim.
Hi Sujin, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My journey so far has been full of exciting transitions and relocations. I’m originally from South Korea. Sometimes, it is hard to believe I am in the United States, far away from my home country, family and friends. I’m an animation artist, visual artist and educator based in Arizona and Los Angeles.
I learned painting and drawing from early childhood and went through long years of professional painting training within Korea’s highly skill-centric art education system. When I went to college after passing an intense competition for university entrance, I wanted to try something other than creating still images. I wanted to extend my medium from traditional painting medium to digital to create moving images. After graduation, many people around me told me it would be wasteful to go abroad to study Experimental Animation. In South Korea, Experimental Animation was a very new area of study and art form. Despite considerable skepticism around me, I chose to come to the United States to study experimental Animation. Throughout the past five years, I successfully pushed my boundary of art and technique towards Animation and CG (Computer Graphics). I’m currently working mainly with 3D software focusing on experimental animated filmmaking and creative collaboration with music entertainment artists.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In Asia, we have a philosophical concept of Yin and Yang. It describes opposite but interconnected forces. When one goes up, the other goes down to create a balance in the world. I believe our life follows this rule. Life cannot be full of only good, while it cannot be full of only bad. This belief helped me go through many struggles in my life and made my mind stronger than before after I overcame my handicaps. Struggles come with a blessing behind them.
In 2020, a few months before my graduation from CalArts, the School lockdown started. All of my classmates, myself included, were in a panic as we suddenly lost access to all the facilities and resources that were necessary for us to finish our thesis. I graduated in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of my international friends were forced to return to their countries because of the lack of job market opportunities during the pandemic. Most of the in-studio animation internships and job openings for beginners were canceled. It was also a tough season for internationals to plan their future due to a rather strict immigration policy. It was hard to foresee the future. The scariest moment was when all my roommates, myself included, got COVID-19 before the vaccine was released. Everyone who had just graduated had minimal health insurance and had to go out to work to earn living costs during the pandemic. When I look back on that time, it was a tough time. But many good things came to me after that time passed.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a CGI artist and filmmaker. I am also an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation at Arizona State University. I am in my early career as an educator for higher education. I studied Painting and Drawing at Ewha Women’s University in South Korea and received my MFA in Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) with a concentration in 3D Animation. My artistic passion is making animated films based on my investigation of social marginalization and exclusion existing under power structure and political authority. I am exploring alternative modes of storytelling using 3D animation techniques.
My MFA thesis Unforgotten (2021), received a Gold medal at the 48th Student Academy Awards in the Animation category. Unforgotten is a 3D animation inspired by the Korean “Comfort Women” issue who suffered from forced sexual slavery in Comfort Stations by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. It tells atrocious wartime sexual violence through fairy-like visuals, which are metaphorical and poetic, so as not to perpetuate violent imagery and re-traumatize victims.
My animated experimental films have been screened in over 40 film festivals, including Annecy International Film Festival, Tampere Film Festival, and Rochester International Film Festival. I’m currently working on a short animated project about Korean adoptees given away to Western societies after the Korean war. My commercial projects include collaborations with Epitaph Records and Warner Music UK. I made a fully animated experimental CG music video, “Lament,” for an LA-based post-hardcore band, Touché Amoré. I also designed an album cover art for MUSE, a legendary British music band, for their new remix album, Origin of Symmetry (XX Anniversary RemiXX). I’m currently working with a talented and fantastic Thailand music band, Defying Decay, for their new music album. I cannot wait to release my new project for them. I’m thrilled to support talented musicians through my visual art created, being inspired by their music and lyrics. Working with musicians is one of my strongest artistic passions.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I’ve been lucky enough to meet many great collaborators in my career in each independent filmmaking and commercial projects. I also have many fantastic fellow professors and mentors at Arizona State University. Those excellent collaborators who I met had a few common characteristics. They are supportive, listen to others’ ideas carefully and behave thoughtfully.
I would love to work with a story artist with a great story idea that tells the truth of this world and musicians who tell meaningful messages through their songs. I believe Art becomes valuable when it functions for this world and contributes to improving it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sujinart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sujinkimart/
Image Credits
Sujin Kim
