THE OTHERWORLDLY - KELIMA K

Kelima K

Conceptual Installation/Performance Artist

& Textile Sculptor/Designer

My work emerges from the intersection of ancestral memory and contemporary transformation. Through conceptual narrative practice, involving performance, installation, and textile sculpture, I create the otherworldly, suspended between historical weight and present moment, on the threshold of other realities. Rooted in intentional practice and sensory presence, this work honors what has been lost, making transcendence possible. Kelima K

Exhibitions

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Metropolitan Museum Of New York.

The Centre Pompidou, Paris, National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

Press

New York Times, Vogue Italia, ArtForum, Artnet

New work

Developing a site-responsive performance installation exploring a pivotal moment in my ancestral past: a historical

event centered around the eloquent resistance and tragic demise of the refined royal women from the opposing side,

who chose to leap into anunknown dimension, and their subsequent erasure throughout history. Through haunting performance, richly hued textile installation, and provocative narrative, this piece reclaims those silenced voices.

The fragile dreams, bravery and essence of their sacrifice, remain alive and powerful today.

Transformation Cloak Series

This series draws from my Japanese ancestry, exploring artisan kimonos through contemporary wearable sculpture,

using textiles and the ancient Heian-era tradition of kimono color coordination, practiced by my ancestors.

For this project I instinctively matched the colors of the Japanese textiles to the museum's interior palette

and surrounding artworks, with the intention to create a harmonious, emotional, and powerful atmosphere.

Later, I discovered the ancient Japanese practice in which kimonos were traditionally color-coordinated

to harmonize with the seasons, as well as the emotions of the wearer. This was a dominant practice

in the Heian court culture of my heritage.

After conceptualizing, designing, handcrafting and writing original narrative text on the label,

I then christened this textile sculpture, 'Transformation Cloak'

My Transformation Cloaks have been exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum Of New York.

The Centre Pompidou, Paris, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Smithsonian National Library, Washington D.C.

Kelima K

Conceptual Installation/Performance Artist & Textile Sculptor/Designer

Moving forward, all credit lines will reflect this authorship.

Historical credits will be noted as legacy documentation.

Transformation Cloak Series and associated text are copyrighted.

What remains when there is no separation? As humans we are deeply connected, made of the same material.

It was important that this fabric remain continuous and not separated.Fifty yards of pure silk, molded

and knotted entirely by hand, during long, solitary nights, with no machines, no scissors, no zippers,

and no assistance. The darkness and the solitude became part of the process.

Twelve models wore this single, continuous garment simultaneously, at

New York Fashion Week. One piece. Twelve bodies. No separation between them.

Every movement, every step, every breath, traveled through the silk from one person to the next.

What one person does ripples through everyone else.

A living demonstration of the work's central concept:

We are all made of the same material, we are connected.

'Nature's Phenomema Series'

New York Times Magazine

WHITNEY MUSEUM NY Butterfly Migration Dress (Right) & ‘Cloud' Dress (Left) from the Nature's Phenomema Series, Artist Teerence Koh (Center)

Feather Kimono, Nature's Phenomema Series

Nature's Phenomema Series

The massive sculptures formed during the Monarch butterfly migration, atmospheric phenomena, botanical anomalies, are ephemeral moments that pierce reality. I am haunted by these experiences. The textile sculptures emerge from these strange, exquisite occurrences of nature, occurrences that hold the power to transport us to a mystical realm.

The Phenonema Series- photos: White Feather Kimono, Butterfly Migration and Cloud Dress

The New York Times, Artforum, Art Observed, Artnet