Lim states that “the surface of my works are visual satires placed in between urban civilization and nature in contemporary times.” The aforementioned “nature” refers to his hometown of Jincheon, where he spent his childhood, while the “city” is New York, where he continues to realize his aspirations as an artist. In this sense, his works emanate from the canvas as a mixture of nostalgia, childhood memories, and lived experiences in New York.
From the 1970s, when he started to live in New York, and through the 1980s, Choong Sup Lim produced minimal drawings on Korean paper, assemblages of found objects, irregular canvas works, and installations that utilized walls and floors. In the 1990s and 2000s, he would begin to utilize objects more actively—to him, found objects are objects “that house traces of the modern person’s subconscious.” Memories within such objects that enclose not only the artist’s self but time itself is another element that inspires him. Indeed, he has deeply contemplated the meaning and potentiality inherent to mediums by freely experimenting with countless different materials. From 2010 through the present, Choong Sup Lim has continued to expand the breadth of his work by presenting complex installations that reflect a Korean sensibility.
Choong Sup Lim gives sculptural form to the memory and sentiment of nostalgia and longing.
Source: Gallery Hyundai
In this work, titled <Horse-Roof>, Lim mixes the speed of shifting time, the shapes of the legs and hooves of a horse pulling a carriage in New York's Central Park, and the lines of the tiled roof of a Hanok (traditional Korean house) using various materials.
