In 1979, the second oil crisis sent global prices soaring, with crude oil costs tripling. As part of a national effort to secure foreign currency, South Korean construction firms were dispatched to the Middle East. Among them was the father of media artist Kim Ayoung, a manager at Hanyang Construction, who left for Saudi Arabia in 1984 and returned in 1991, following the outbreak of the Gulf War.
“There were only two holidays each year,” Kim recalled. “Our family would go to the airport and wait at the Gimpo arrival gate for the doors to open. Dried dates were a year-round staple in the house. My father would return with fragments of a distant world. While he worked in a place swept by desert winds, my sibling and I grew up with our mother.”
Now 46 and one of the most prominent figures in South Korea’s contemporary art scene, Kim Ayoung has unveiled a new work. Her solo exhibition Plot, Blop, Plop opened on Mar. 21 at Atelier Hermès in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul. The 28-minute video, narrated by Kim herself, weaves a personal story rooted in her father’s years in the Middle East. The piece revisits the Al-Mather Housing Complex in Riyadh, one of Saudi Arabia’s first large-scale apartment developments, awarded to Hanyang Construction in the 1980s. Nicknamed the “Hanyang Apartments” by South Korean expatriates, the complex was later renamed the “Kuwait Apartments” after it housed Kuwaiti refugees during the Gulf War. Today, it serves as a residential area for Saudi Arabia’s middle class.
Drawing from childhood memories, her father’s colleagues' recollections, field visits, and interviews with local residents, Kim expands a deeply personal history into a layered narrative that reflects on modern geopolitics. Through sound design and a visually immersive style, she explores themes including the energy crisis triggered by the oil shock, South Korea’s construction boom in the Middle East, the Gulf War, and broader geopolitical tensions over oil. “This is the first time in my 17-year career that I’ve brought my family’s story to the forefront,” Kim said. “It took a great deal of courage.”
The exhibition’s title, Plot, Blop, Plop, is a play on words. “Plot” refers not only to a narrative structure but also to a parcel of land or a hidden scheme. “Blop” and “Plop” suggest the sound of oil droplets, evoking the complex entanglements of architecture, geopolitics, and memory. “The title encompasses the history shaped by oil, the ambiguity embedded in architectural blueprints, and the memories that bind these spaces together,” Kim explained.
Kim Ayoung has become one of South Korea’s most internationally recognized artists. Last month, she became the first Korean recipient of the LG Guggenheim Award and is scheduled to attend the ceremony in New York this May. Her exhibition schedule is packed through the end of the year, with solo shows set for the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin, a large-scale video installation on the exterior of Hong Kong’s M+ museum in October, and another solo exhibition at MoMA PS1 in New York this November.
Kim first gained global attention with her Delivery Dancer series, featuring helmeted female couriers racing through virtual cities. While her latest work differs in tone and style, it continues to explore longstanding themes in her artistic practice. At the 2015 Venice Biennale, she was widely praised for Zepheth, Whale Oil from the Hanging Gardens to You, Shell 1, a piece that reimagined 20th-century history through the lens of oil. An So-yeon, artistic director at Atelier Hermès, noted that Zepet, a sound performance piece from a decade ago, has now been reinterpreted into a visual form. “The integration of family photos, archival footage, Gulf War-era newspapers, and generative AI with game engine animation marks a masterful achievement,” she said.
“As much as I imagine the future,” Kim added, “I’m deeply invested in studying the ancient and mythical past. The past is just as important as the future in my work—it often serves as the origin point for what I create.” The exhibition runs through June 1 and is free to the public.
