First impressions of Byoungho Kim’s work often pertain to the sculptures’ metallicity, geometric lucidity, or polished form. Ironically, his sculptures imply anxiety and fright. Like the “Gilded Age,” an era and phrase coined by Mark Twain, Kim’s sculptures have mirror-like surfaces and are highly well made than any other sculpture; nonetheless, the anxiety and fright inherent in them become more apparent, perhaps more so the more well-made they are. We don’t experience the beauty of relief and satisfaction, but rather an uneasy and marvelous sublimity—in other words, “compulsive beauty” created by anxiety.
His works slowly elevate tension by causing anxiety and fear and overwhelm the viewer. This feeling of anxiety also transforms into a sense of marvel through the sensual and tactile surface and dazzling metallic colors of the sculptures. A pivotal clue to understanding his work is retrieved from the fact that the word “marvel” has been in use since the medieval era and indicated fissure in order. The sculptures are based on geometric lucidity, symmetry, and balance, but they also generate a type of self-contradictory marvel that deviate from order and the norm.