It is very simple: stretched canvases and her famous Bottari, Korean bundles, in the same cloth traversing all the rooms of the beautiful house. They are part of her work Sowing into Painting at the Wanås Foundation in Sweden. A field was sown with flax that was harvested to produce canvas and linseed oil, the binding agent for paint.
The windows of Kewenig are covered with a material that creates the effect of iridescent light. This light envelops the minimal space. I like to think the light here functions as a Bottari: a bundle that keeps things and protects them. In this case, it includes also us, the audience.
In an interview in the accompanying catalogue (a beauty, so I bought it) Kimsooja talks about adding audiences to her work. She observes it as performing by being. It is subtle, the viewer may not be aware of it, but it is an invitation.
Afterwards, I went into the garden, which was designed by artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay. There is a stone and its inscription is an Epicurian maxim. It reads: "Live Unknown."
