Installation view, “Jae Yong Kim: Lust for Donuts,” Blank Space Gallery (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)
All of us crave bad things, and want them bad. Do we know they damage us? Yes. Does it still feel good in the heat of the moment? Absolutely. Do we vow to stop? Of course. Do we do it again? Well, uh … Most art tackles this bad-things-feel-good conundrum with angst, fire, and brimstone. Jae Yong Kim’s stroke of genius is to depict it satirically. Sculptures of snails comically pining and lusting after donuts fill the Blank Space gallery in Chelsea. It’s a rare opportunity to laugh at bad habits.
For example, in “Omg, It’s better than sex!” (2012), a snail lays on the floor against the wall, crosses his eyes, and sticks out his slobbering tongue to savor a donut. Donuts piled nearby are his only companions. The dropping antennae and half-shut right eye show the snail coming undone. And yet, he still wants more.
Jae Yong Kim, “Omg! It’s better than sex!” (2012)
On a nearby wall, a work with the same name, “Omg, It’s better than sex!” (2012), features three flying snails all yearning for donuts. One fixes his eyes on a donut in the distance while sticking out a salivating tongue and twisting his antennae in nervous anticipation. Another sinks his teeth into the donut and seems to be rushing home to feast on his bounty. The third snail is caught at the moment right before devouring the donut with eyes transfixed, a wide grin, and a tongue ready to hit the donut with the tense anticipation of a scorpion’s tail.
Jae Yong Kim, “Omg! It’s better than sex!” (2012)
The facial expressions give these works their semiotic and comic strength. Jae Yong Kim understands the expressive and symbolic potential of small details in the eyes, antennae, and mouth as well as how to imbue each snail with subtle but meaningful body language. The common theme of lust for donuts (also the title of the show) is explored in several different emotional states through rich variations in visage and gesture.
The sculptor takes the idea one step further in a group of works that explore the snails’ dark side. After consuming the donuts, the snails turn metallic and go berserk. In yet another work with the now familiar title “Omg, It’s better than sex!” (2012), one of the bad silver snails clenches a match in its jaws while standing poised to light the fuse of a cannon. The target is a separate piece, also called “Omg, It’s better than sex!” (2012), in which a good, untainted white snail marks the bullseye, surrounded by launched donuts that missed the center. The kicker is that it’s hard to tell whether the snail is happy or sad to be the target: does he want to get hit by the projectile donut he’s craving?
Jae Yong Kim, “Omg! It’s better than sex!” (2012)
In the the most elaborate work, “Back the F¥€$ off!” (2012), a gang of evil silver snails surround the remaining white snail with a donut in its mouth. The silver snails cast shadows in several directions, suggesting the ominous and dark circumstances of the confrontation.
Jae Yong Kim, “Back the F¥€$ off!” (2012)
Obviously, the donuts and the snails are metaphors.
Carl Jung saw a special significance in how the snail’s hard shell protects a soft, gooey, vulnerable membrane within. To him, it was a symbol for how, like a hard shell, the conscious conceals and protects the more precious and less formed unconscious within. Jae Young Kim was inspired by Jung to anthropomorphize snails in his art.
Donuts could literally be the treats that Homer Simpson loves, or they could represent other vices we crave for the sugar, cream, and spice they bring to life. The emotional heartburn from the spice is something we’re often prepared to tolerate, like a snail stuck to a bullseye.
Jae Yong Kim, “Omg! It’s better than sex!” (2012)
St. Augustine put the problem most succinctly: “It was evil and I loved it.” Or at least, that’s his quote on the frontispiece of a poetry book I’ve never stopped borrowing. The clever ploy here is to make the source of evil look as appetizing and appealing as a donut. Traditional moralistic depictions of dire consequences don’t have as much motivational power as we all wish they would. Does anything really make it easier to resist vices or to make donuts taste sour? Perhaps that’s the deeper problem.
Jae Yong Kim: Lust for Donuts is on view at the Blank Space Gallery (511 West 25th Street, Suite #204) until October 6.
I…kind of love this. And I love that you managed to sneak a St.
Augustine quote into a review about snail sculptures eating donuts.