Radix: RIM PARK

RIM PARK

Radix

Kraupa–Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

28.02.2025—17.04.2025

Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler is pleased to announce Rim Park’s first solo exhibition with the gallery and in Europe, Radix.The word radix refers to the source or origin of something, its own etymology dating back to the 16th century, derived from the Latin term for the root of a plant. Rim Park approaches roots from multiple vantage points: literally, on a botanical level, as well as systemically, treating the root as the target of a search—one that spans different planes, mediums, and disciplines. Her process of unearthing roots from beneath developed, urbanized land is almost archaeological, equally engaged with the traces of architecture and the body. Root systems, after all, function both like the foundation of a building and the brain of a plant—sending signals through networks that extend underground, linking individual organisms into broader, interdependent systems.

Once uncovered, Park extracts cross-sections of plant samples, transforming them into observable planes. Under a microscope, she examines their fundamental life-support systems—growth points, xylem, and phloem—where shifts in cell density and the arrangement of structures expose the material vitality of organic forms.

Park’s wall works combine etching, colored pencil, and ink on printmaking paper, layered onto birch wood. Capturing the intricate lines and textures of tree bark and roots at a microscopic level, her compositions invite close inspection, merging the precision of controlled etching with the irregular grain of birch. Her practice integrates the technologies of microscopy with ancient Korean pigment-making techniques, resulting in anachronistic artworks that exist simultaneously in the contemporary and the traditional. Park contrasts the controlled process of etching with the unpredictable quality of the chemical reactions between the home-made traditional pigments on the Hanji paper. Microscopic cross-sections are reinterpreted as planar compositions, revealing layered depths beneath surfaces that might otherwise seem solid or simple, while her sculptural works embrace the roots” inherent physicality—sprawling and expansive. Despite their painterly and illustrative qualities, the Korean paper is mounted onto birch platforms that extend from the wall—a positioning only noticeable when navigating the works in real space.

Radix develops in three stages, following Park’s logical transition from fact to fiction. She begins with a process of recreation: the prints and etched works mounted on birch are faithful reproductions of microscopic landscapes of leaves, sourced from her extensive archive of collected samples. These planar compositions, hoisted forward by their respective birch platforms, mimic the deceptive flatness of a leaf, which, once magnified, reveals a layered microcosm. The forms of Park’s larger wall works, Ashi, Sila, and Ino, are simplified shapes derived from the microscopic structures of her prints. From Ino and From Ashi, as suggested by their titles, derive their formal compositions from their larger counterparts.

In Park’s process, printing and painting take on distinctive narrative roles. Printed works replicate the data of plant science, while painting and sculpture reimagine it.

For Radix, Rim Park’s works emerge in four distinct formats, evolving from dimensional compositions to more planar ones. This process of flattening is reflected in the titling of her works—for instance, Ashi and its counterpart, From Ashi. Park’s fascination with uncovering, digging, and revealing what lies beneath the surface is central to her practice. The structure of the exhibition inverts this process, beginning with depth and culminating at the surface.

Radix, the only free-standing sculpture in the exhibition, lies on the gallery floor like skeletal remains washed ashore. Though surrounded by its more animated counterparts, Radix carries a ghostly presence, its lifeless driftwood form evoking both empathy and anthropomorphic projection. The work spans across two gallery rooms, with threads extending from the walls to the ceiling, some originating from the sculpture itself. Radix, 2024 also reveals Park’s archaeological process. Collecting and combining found driftwood is an imaginative endeavor: she reconstructs the full body of the plant much like a paleontologist assembling the skeleton of a dinosaur from scattered fossils.

Park is interested in the nomenclature of plant science—how the names assigned to species reflect the cultural and sentimental context of their discovery. Her synthesis of imagination and collected data acknowledges the confluence of narrative and science already present in biology and botany and epistemology: facts are saturated with anecdotal and sentimental evidence as well as empirical knowledge. Ashi means both 'foot' and 'leg' in Japanese, a reference to Kijimuna—tree spirits in Okinawan mythology that come alive and walk around at night.