Meet Sungyeon Kim | Performance Artist & Object maker
We had the good fortune of connecting with Sungyeon Kim and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Sungyeon, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I am a performance artist from Seoul, South Korea, currently based in London. I was born and raised in Seoul, and I have also studied in the Czech Republic and the UK. This history of moving across different countries and cultures has played a crucial role in shaping who I am today and has significantly influenced my artistic practice.
Through these experiences of living and traveling in different cities, I realized how challenging it can be to maintain an open mind toward constantly changing environments and people, while also staying true to myself. As a naturally adaptable person, I often found myself blending into new surroundings so much that I would lose sight of my own identity.
This became even more apparent after moving to a multicultural city like London, where people often identify me first by my nationality. Ironically, it was only after leaving Korea that I began to see myself as “Korean” through more objective eyes. When you live in your home country for a long time, it’s difficult to fully recognize how much your upbringing and cultural background shape who you are.
Now, I understand that identity is not defined solely by nationality or where you live, but also by your mindset, attitude, and the direction you choose to take in life. I identify myself as a third-culture individual, and I actively try to reflect this multi-layered identity through my artwork.
As I continue to explore my identity, my artistic interest has naturally evolved toward the concept of being ‘on the border’ , embracing those who exist in-between. This includes immigrants, adoptees, and individuals with multicultural backgrounds, who, like myself, navigate the complexities of belonging and identity. I find a unique beauty in these experiences, and they have become a central focus of my current research and creative practice.
Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a performance artist and visual practitioner exploring the dynamic relationships between body, space, and object. Her work continuously questions the boundaries and extensions of the body, while addressing themes of migration, displacement, and the shifting sense of identity that emerges in between.
Core of my practice is the exploration of bodily experience, drawing connections between plants and humans. Plants, constantly adapting, rooting, and transforming in unfamiliar environments, become powerful metaphors for the migrant body—always negotiating its place within new territories.
My recent work,
Grounded in Somatic Movement Practices, my rehearsal process invites performers to excavate their personal body memories and sensory vocabularies. This somatic approach allows each performer to develop a unique corporeal language, which merges personal experience with collective physicality, ultimately shaping the performance into a shared, evolving body.
Through my object work, I relentlessly investigates the textures of contact between body and object, highlighting both the violence and tenderness embedded within these interactions. Her performances reveal how bodily memory, object, and space collectively construct new landscapes of identity—an embodied archive of migration.
I seek the way of understand how bodies negotiate space through touch, resistance, and adaptation, and how sensory memory creates new terrains of belonging. I hope my art work invites the audience to reconsider the migrating body—not as a solitary figure, but as part of a larger, ever-shifting community of bodies in motion.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love my living area. It’s in East London—but not too far east and not too central. It’s just perfect. Haha.
I would say London is an incredibly diverse city, so every neighborhood feels completely different. A lot of people imagine Big Ben and the riverside when they think of London, but for me, my favorite spot is always “Angel”.
Angel is located between Barbican and Islington. It has such a cozy atmosphere, filled with cute cafes, design furniture shops, and object stores. As someone who constantly gets inspired by architecture and objects, this area always gives me endless ideas—and even heals me. Walking around Angel, seeing the mixture of old and modern architecture, makes me appreciate the beauty that comes from respecting the past while reimagining it for the present. This way of seeing the city also connects deeply to how I observe the human body and its environment in my artistic practice.
Recently, Angel has also become home to lots of Asian restaurants and cafes. These places are getting more popular and they invite an even more diverse crowd into the area. One place I highly recommend is the cafe “Katsute 100”. It’s such a blessing to have a place like this when you’re craving desserts that you can only find back home. Katsute 100 fulfills exactly that craving.
If you’re looking for a fun night out with friends, I suggest visiting “The Bar With No Name”. Their oyster drink is a must-try—it looks and feels like an oyster, but there’s no actual oyster inside.
Lastly, there’s a very cozy toy and home goods store called “After Noah”. If you ever want to heal your inner child, this is the place to go.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I wanted to say thank you ! to all my fellow artist who always support me. As an artist, we always have to find our own way to maintain our own journey of life. As an artist, we are constantly challenged to carve out our own unique paths, and without a creative community to exchange ideas with, I know how incredibly difficult it would be to sustain my practice.
In 2023-2024, I had the opportunity to both participate in and direct a research project exploring body reactions and movements within refugee and immigrant communities in London. This experience solidified my belief in the power of body memory and the sincerity held within each individual’s gestures. It shaped my understanding of how the body itself can carry stories of migration, displacement, and belonging.
Also want to highlight a book that left a profound impact on me “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner. This memoir helped me understand how to stay grounded and connected to my heritage, no matter where I am in the world. Zauner, a Korean-American author, reflects on her search for her Korean identity after the passing of her mother, largely through reconnecting with Korean food at H Mart. This book sparked a personal question for me: “What anchors me to my own culture and community?” It made me reflect deeply on the meaning of cultural boundaries and how I navigate them as an artist and individual.
Website: https://www.sungyeonkim.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mangdoongjjang/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sungyeon-kim-4235a5222/
Image Credits
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