“I depict urban fantasies and relish the bittersweetness that capitalism brings, witnessing the duality of a metropolis: its magnetism and danger.” 

—Sangbin IM

Nearly two metres wide, this panoramic tableau of Times Square marks the beginning of Korean artist Sangbin IM’s (b.1976) ongoing exploration of the cityscape. To create his digital assemblages, IM captures disparate elements from various environments and moments and then masterfully weaves them into a narrative that oscillates between reality and fantasy as seen in the present work.  

In 2003, IM left Korea for the United States to pursue his MFA in Painting at Yale University and spent several years travelling across the country and taking countless photographs. In the monumental composition, offered here, he has assembled numerous skyscrapers from his travels alongside the individual landmarks and giant billboards in Times Square and exaggerated the heights of the buildings beyond reality. 'The buildings themselves are not only stacked high but also feature breaks or holes in their structure or only the facades remain, resembling matchsticks,’ IM explains. ‘Their forms are distorted in various ways, jutting out at odd angles like cacti, each seemingly striving to reach towards the sky in its own way.’ Juxtaposed with the buildings’ heightened verticality is the expansive sky, composed of hundreds of photographs of snow on the ground. Upon closer inspection, we notice that the people in IM’s uncanny interpretation of Times Square are engaged in various fantastical acts from scaling buildings and wandering on rooftops to even flying. In the centre of the foreground stands a solitary figure holding a green balloon (his now wife) who, for the artist, represents the duality of feeling anxious yet drawn to the megalopolis. In re-examining an iconic urban landscape, IM invites us to contemplate the interplay between digital innovation and our evolving cultural landscape. 

The Seoul-based artist has exhibited globally, and his work resides in several institutions, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea; the Seoul Museum of Art; and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

 Video interview with Sangbin IM on his image-making process, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.