Jinsik Kim’s Functional Sculptures Combine Design, Installation & Art Direction.

Seoul-based designer and sculptor Jinsik Kim is interested in the borderline between art and design, but also the boundaries between life and objects and people. He opened Studio JINSIK KIM in 2013, and the heart of his oeuvre is centred upon luxurious and ‘functional sculpture’.

The same year, Jinsik worked on a window display for Hermes in Korea, and he exhibited a series of lamps titled ‘Spot’ at Baccarat Highlights. Since then, he’s exhibited at the V&A in London, created handmade, sculptural mini golf courses for Wallpaper*, and has collaborated with Christofle, Bolon, Cuellar Stone, and FRAME.

Here, we take a look at a few of our favourite Jinsik Kim pieces and collections.

Wave Bench (2017). Photography by Neulhae Cho.

Wave table (2017). Photography by Neulhae Cho.

Supported by Korean fine marble distributors Total Marble, Wave is a table fashioned in either arctic or spruce blue stone. While the structure is simple, constructed of a steel frame and slabs of marble, the swirls of colour in the stone are wildly vivid, and its edges gently undulate as the ocean might in calmer seas. A playful divider across the top, cut to resemble waves, makes the table a sort of oceanic Ping-Pong table—so it is as playful as it is arresting.

Balance from a line (Kim Jin Sik solo show in 2017). Exhibition by Sophis Gallery in Korea. Photography by Sangpil Lee.

Hosted last year at Sophis Gallery in Seoul, Jinsik’s solo exhibition Balance from a line explored the design possibilities of raw materials: specifically, how simple shapes and lines can enrich their beauty. Within the show was his HalfHalf series, contrasting classic stone and mirrored metal to illicit new patterns and curious optical illusions. Like the Wave table the HalfHalf series is at once serene and striking, but spirited and curious too.

HalfHalf Round Ellipse. Photography by JinSik Kim.

HalfHalf Console.

HalfHalf low table (2016). Photography by JinSik Kim.

HalfHalf circle long bench (2017). Photography by JinSik Kim.

The HalfHalf round is an almost celestial mirror seamlessly clipped to a rod of marble, while HalfHalf low large is a coffee table created out of a hollow sphere of reflective metal, balanced by a marble bar. HalfHalf circle long balances a cylinder of polished iron on terracotta-coloured concrete.

Clivage Round Bowl in collaboration with Christofle (2013). Photo by Nicolas Genta.

Clivage Round Bowl in collaboration with Christofle (2013). Photo by Nicolas Genta.

In a collaboration with historic French silverware outfit Christofle, Jinsik’s Clivage series contrasts silver with granite or marble. Using basic shapes like a circle, triangle, and a square, Clivage is essentially a striking fruit bowl. “I decided to use a geometrical structure like crossing a heavy material over the folded silver,” Jinsik said of the series. “And then it’s able to function as a container with a good contrast between a light material and heavy one.”

Detail of HalfHalf Console.

[Images courtesy of Studio Jinsik Kim. Photography credits as noted.]