Images unlock hidden memories.

This is not about memories from my childhood or my past. Rather, these are enigmatic images lingering within me from unknown territory.

Paramnesia I is an experimental moving image installation. Deciphering the meaning of “paramnesia” in terms of psychiatry: the definition is a distortion of memory in which fact and fantasy are confused. I reflect and depict the poignant derivation of a pregnant female figure with her garment, furniture, and natural force based on my experience and indistinguishable recollections. A glitch clouds my present-day memory and reanimates my subconscious in a series of startlingly vivid eidetic images: old garments, chairs, gravity, air and water. The images of old garments are mostly related to huge dresses worn by noble Korean and European women from long ago. Fabric layered heavily with deep luxurious flowing colors; patterns and textures are floating in the air. At times, the thick murky air suspends them with no gravity or below the bottomless water. Motions are getting slower and smoother due to the pressure of air and/or water. Other images consist of a sofa and an arm chair which relate to texture and color of these garments. The overall shape and design of the furniture is antique and worn, but still reserving qualities of opulence. These images linger within me. They are as much a part of me as the blood that runs through my veins. I experience them as cinematic motion and still images. I still cannot connect them to anything I know. Could it be scenes from my past-life? - or a false surreal vision? The unconscious exists as unexplainable images, but what is fact and what is fiction? What is authentic and what is borrowed? What rises to the surface and what remains submerged? The answer is ambivalent.

The computerized body of a woman constructed in three dimensional software (Maya), and wrapped with drawn or scanned textures. The ways that digital artists and traditional painters approached the works are inevitably different; however, they are of equal significance in manner of practice. The process of creating those digital images involves nostalgia for traditional painting and sculpture. As I manipulate reflections, lighting and shadows, I recall portraits and still lives in oil painting and charcoal drawing. Virtual figures, garments, and environments incorporate elements of drawing, painting, and sculpting meticulously. The simulated reality is completed within the intricate digital world.

The images of Paramnesia are a collection of the envisioning maternity wear with floating bodies, in which I expand upon, based on my subconscious and eidetic images. Captivating woman’s body is depicted with physical manipulation dressed in garments from reality and unrealistic fashion from my hidden memories. The character is posed in virtual nature or interiors, appealing with serenity of movements, yet simultaneously possessing an awareness of their unsure situation. Their inner strength is seemingly in contrast with fragility of their appearance. My figures, garments, objects and surroundings represent another realm of emotion. This environment is layered in meaning, ambiguity and supported virtual domains.

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Kim, H. G., Fluid Cinema - Alternative Experimental Moving Images : Paramnesia I, Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Electronic Visualization, Graduate College, University of Illinois at Chicago, April 6th, 2010.