Otherwordly artist Jin Kim is not just breaking down boundaries with his work, he is experiencing them. TOM PARNELL caught up with the Korean painter at his exhibition in the Stables Gallery.
A marginal man is a man caught in the boundary; a person from another world, struggling to fit into the different way of life, a new cultural environment.
A stranger in a strange world, living in the margins, the outskirts of a society. I am a marginal man."
When artist Jin Kim, 34, came to London three years ago from South Korea the cultural differences shocked him.
Studying a masters in fine art at Chelsea College of Art and Design Jin's sense of alienation began to influence his work.
He says: "The key word is margins. When I arrived in London I felt very nervous and I had a very strange fear.
"I thought about what was different between England's culture and Korean culture.
"With much of my work the background is traditional English things, like a lounge or kitchen or garden.
"Then in the front is a figure which is myself and I want to make a contrast between the figure and the background."
Jin's exhibition, entitled Margins, has previously shown in Zurich, Switzerland, and, on April 24, opened in The Stables Gallery in Gladstone Park, Dollis Hill.
He says: "The gallery is a lovely place and very friendly. It's good for me because it's surrounded by a public park so a lot of people wander in and see my work."
As one of the most ethnically-diverse boroughs in London, Brent seems like a perfect setting for Kim's exploration of cultural differences.
He says: "In a city with continuous influx of immigrants, I see collisions of different worlds.
"There are now so many of these worlds that margins have become more substantial than the inside.
"Everybody seems to be caught up in the margins, separated and split from everybody else."
Margins is on at The Stables Gallery until May 18. The gallery is open between 11am-5pm.
