Atta Kim
The Museum Project #042

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Artist Atta Kim(Korean, born 1956)Korean, born 1956

CultureKorean

Titles

The Museum Project #042
from the series Nirvana
from The Museum Project (1995-2002)

Date1998

PlaceKorea

MediumSilver dye bleach print

DimensionsOverall: 19 15/16 × 23 15/16in. (50.6 × 60.8cm)
Frame: 26 7/8 × 30 7/8 × 1 1/4 in. (68.3 × 78.4 × 3.2 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Joan Morgenstern

Object number2000.771

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionAtta
Kim’s seven-year Museum Project
series, begun in 1995, has nine distinct subsets and presents men and women on
display in Plexiglas vitrines. In this photograph, the vitrine encases a nude
Buddhist nun in front of a Buddhist altar. On the one hand, the subject is
confined and vulnerable, suggesting a controlling society that allows for no
individual self or private space. On the other, these encapsulated humans can
be seen as “contemporary treasures,” preserved as precious museum artifacts
worthy of contemplation.
ProvenanceThe artist, Seoul, South Korea; purchased by MFAH, 2000.
Exhibition History"Texas Collects Asia: Contemporary," The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, October 18, 2008–January 6, 2009.

"Chaotic Harmony: Contemporary Korean Photography," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 18, 2009–January 3, 2010.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Label on mat: "ATTA, Kim / 1480-1 Jung 2dong, Haeundae-gu, Pusan Korea / Title Museum Project (series of Temple) / Date 2000 Print made 2000 / Edition No 1/10 / sign [signature]"

Signed and numbered in black, recto, lower right: "1/10 [signature]"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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