Today we’d like to introduce you to Won Ju Lim and Alice Könitz.
Hi Won Ju and Alice, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Könitz-Lim Studio is a collaborative team founded on a shared interest in the intersection of architecture, installation and sculpture. We started our collaborative team only last year for the purpose of producing public sculptures together. We each have 20+ years of experience working as visual artists and we continue our practices independently. But as collaborative partners, we are able to merge our experiences, thoughts and technical skills toward elaborate and grand-scale projects. It was during the proposal phase of our very first public sculpture that we understood the strength of our collaboration: we inspired each other, we learned from each other and found that together we create a good balance. We recently learned that the first project we proposed has been awarded to be produced. We believe the key to a successful project starts with research. We start with a deep understanding of the context in which the artwork will be situated. This entails research on various aspects of the location: we study the history of the site and the city, the architectural landmarks nearby, the landscape that surrounds it, the culture of its community, and details such as the specific foot traffic patterns and lighting conditions. Our sculptures explore our physical and conceptual relationships to the built structures that organize our social lives. The elements of our work address the subject of interior and exterior relationship as both an empirical and imaginary construct. The invited viewers experience the work on an embodied and interactive level, suspending the work between a speculative and a functional state. With our interest and background in Architecture, we approach our work thinking pragmatically about spatiotemporal interactions. We create a collaboration with the architectural language of a given space, its context and all the elements within producing an all-encompassing experience.
Won Ju: My interdisciplinary, multimedia practice revolves around the interactions of real and imaginary spaces in the construction of memory, longing and fantasy. Evident in the work is an abiding engagement with what might be termed peripheral experience as it relates to the dislocation and self-alienation of a subject. These interests, present throughout my work, stem from my personal background as an immigrant who adapted to a new culture and learned a new language at an impressionable age. I was born in Gwangju, South Korea. In the late 70s, my family immigrated to the US and settled in Los Angeles, California. Growing up, I was part of an immigrant community and had to negotiate the differences of belonging to two cultures, Korean and American—it was a learning experience. I was both and neither. During those formative years, I learned to understand my relationship to the world through two languages, through multiple perspectives, and from a peripheral position. This experience was influential in developing my position as an artist immersed in the complexities of this world while retaining a measure of criticality.
Alice Könitz: I grew up in Germany and moved to Los Angeles to go to graduate school when I was in my mid-twenties. I was always interested in the way that built structures organize our lives, or show certain world views. Moving to Los Angeles has certainly pushed my work further along this direction because I wanted to understand the place I was in. What ties my work together overall is a constant re-evaluation of my relationship with my environment. Many of my sculptures are hovering in a state between contemplation and function. I think about possible or impossible situations in which their use would make sense. Part of my work revolves around a fictional museum that I founded. More recent works deal with structures defined by ecological concerns.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
There are numerous challenges.
1. Articulating our ideas through written language during the proposal phase and then translating the ideas into a visual language that is accessible to the public. This entails negotiation and administration skills.
2. Redefining public sculpture; more importantly, questioning what is “public’ and what is “sculpture.” We are challenging ourselves and each other to find alternative ways of understanding what can be public art. We don’t think this is necessarily a new question. Other artists have redefined and found interesting ways of activating this question through their public art. However, it’s important to keep asking the question because communities and the visual culture with the communities are always changing. Public art that once addressed its community few decades ago may not be as engaging now as it once was.
3. The great opportunities of public art provide the greatest challenges, too. Addressing an unknown audience over a long time is virtually impossible, but there are certainly a number of works that were relevant when they were made and are still accessible now. Trying to be timeless is certainly not the answer.
4. Structural integrity is an absolute requirement for public works. Works that are shown in a gallery or a museum can afford to be precariously balanced and fragile. Works in public spaces can’t if they are not under constant supervision and protection. You simply can’t risk any accidents. This excludes a variety of materials and ways of making things, but it also challenges us to find new ways of working with materials which might not be available in the museum/gallery context.
5. Speaking of context, a public context provides specific interactive situations that would never be given in the staged environment of an art space simply because it is not a controlled environment. People can engage with the work as they please. At the same time, the uncontrolled environment will risk the destruction and non-appreciation of the artwork.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are both artists.
Image Credits:
1. Konitz-Lim photo Won Ju Lim 2. Won Ju Lim, California Dreamin’ Exhibition view, San Jose Museum of Art Dimensions Variable, Plexiglas foam core board, video projection (no photo credit) 3. Won Ju Lim, Baroque Pet Shop Exhibition view, Patrick Painter Inc. Dimensions variable Mixed media sculptures and five video projections Photo: Fredrik Nilsen 4. Alice Könitz, LAMOA Display System #5 (LAMOA presents: Mülheim/Ruhr and the 1970‘s (Das LAMOA präsentiert: Mülheim/Ruhr und die 1970er Jahre), 2017, Particle board, metal, jeans suit, Alpha Gypsum/Forton, watercolor on paper, foam core board, vinyl, foam, cigarettes, coins, Plexiglas, 197 x 315 x 98 in. Museum der Stadt Mülheim an der Ruhr (no photo credit) 5. Alice Könitz, Domestic Pavilion, 2019 Wood, metal, stoneware, sticks, rock, plant material, paper 96 x 96 x 96 in. COLA 2019, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Photo: Ruben Diaz 6. Alice Könitz, LAMOA Display Systems #1, 2 and 3, Made in LA 2014, UCLA Hammer Museum, Photo: Robert Wedemeyer
