The Korean artist Regina Kim wanders into the world of images as if into a wonderland packed full of other people’s gazes and projections. Her surrealist practice utilises collage, illustration, and, more recently, moving image, as languages she can meld and reconfigure, so that fragments of the visible, the remembered and the imagined can coalesce in unexpected ways. The weird juxtapositions of faces, of textures and found ephemera in her work then do not only surprise, but open a question about how we have been subliminally conditioned to separate things. In her images, each collision acts an argument against the neat divisions imposed by society and culture, offering refuge and provocation all at once – the strangeness of the worlds she constructs not proving an escape from reality, but a method of unpicking its seams.

To engage with the vistas of Kim’s work is to be made aware of how much of our life is assembled from histories, desires and habits that have been placed side by side, and often in ways that conceal the joins. Her hugely successful installation at the Shanghai Powerlong Museum last year, created with the software engineer Tony Lim, extended this practice of cultural assemblage into immersive environs, allowing her creations to unfold in 360-degrees, drawing the viewer into dizzying hinterlands of the imagination. In this interview with FUTURISTIC DRAGON the artist explains the impetus behind her invitation to relook at the fragments of our world, and tells us why assembling them in new ways paves the way to an infinity of possibilities.

Why are you drawn to work in the medium of collage, and what do you love about the surreal?

I have been working as a visual artist for four years, primarily focusing on collage, illustration, and media art, with collage being the starting point of my practice. I balance both art projects and commissioned work, and, since my work is digital based, it’s easier for me to collaborate with various brands, musicians, and also to host my own exhibitions. The main theme I’m currently working with is ‘Beyond Borders’. During my time studying Fine Art at Kingston University, I became fascinated by the concept of diversity and started to notice the many walls and boundaries that exist around us. I found collage to be an ideal medium to express these boundaries and limitations, so I began to develop my practice around it. As I explored collage, I researched the works of many artists and realised how closely related collage is to surrealism. Artists like Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, and Hannah Höch have greatly influenced my perspective, giving me the freedom to see beyond the ordinary. I am captivated by the world beyond reality and aim to create surreal spaces and worlds. I don’t seek to escape reality entirely, though – I draw upon real-life emotions and issues to create imagined worlds that reflect the complexity of the human experience.