At the intersection of graphic design, drawing, and the enigmatic realm of the subconscious lies Night Figures—an evocative visual art project by Trisha Kim, designed to blur the lines between conscious creation and instinctual expression. This body of work invites viewers to confront the shadows of their own minds, where fleeting shapes, faces, and forms emerge from abstract chaos, echoing the universal experience of finding meaning in the unknown.
The Birth of Night Figures: Music, Movement, and the Dance Floor
The project’s origins trace back to the artist’s immersion in OverCurrent, a musical collective known for its experimental soundscapes. Inspired by the transcendental moment when a dancer closes their eyes and surrenders to rhythm and light, Trisha Kim sought to capture the ephemeral “night figures” that materialise in these liminal spaces—phantom companions birthed by music, movement, and collective energy.
“Night Figures is about what happens when we let go,” explains the artist. “It’s that split second on the dance floor where the self dissolves, and something primal takes over. The figures aren’t imagined—they’re felt.”
The Process: Surrendering Control to the Subconscious
To channel this raw, instinctual energy into visual form, Kim adopted a radical creative method: drawing with their non-dominant left hand. By relinquishing control and embracing the stiff, unrefined movements of their untrained hand, the artist allowed intuition to guide the process. Scribbles, jagged lines, and organic shapes flowed freely, unburdened by conscious intent.
“The left hand became a conduit,” says Kim. “The more I surrendered, the more the marks felt automatic—like the subconscious was sketching itself.”
These analog drawings were then photographed and digitally refined, stripped of colour to emphasise their stark, graphic quality. What began as chaotic gestures evolved into intricate labyrinths of linework, where hidden forms began to surface: a face in the negative space, an animal silhouette, a figure frozen mid-dance.
Hide-and-Seek: Discovering the Unseen
The final stage of Night Figures transforms creation into collaboration—between the artist and their own psyche. By revisiting the digitised drawings, Kim engaged in a visual “hide-and-seek,” consciously identifying shapes that their subconscious had buried. The resulting artworks exist in a state of duality: half-revealed, half-concealed, existing on the edge of recognition.
“These figures aren’t invented; they’re discovered,” the artist notes. “They’re fragments of a collective subconscious—the kind we all glimpse in dreams, shadows, or the corner of our vision.”
Night Figures transcends traditional graphic design, acting as a mirror to the human tendency to seek order in chaos. The work challenges viewers to project their own interpretations onto its abstract forms, echoing the way we assign meaning to music, nature, or even randomness itself. Trisha Kim’s innovative fusion of analog and digital techniques, paired with a philosophy rooted in psychology and communal experience by bridging the tactile intimacy of hand-drawn art with the precision of graphic design, the project redefines how we visualize the intangible. It’s a testament to the power of surrendering to the unknown. For Kim, this project is a gateway to broader conversations about creativity, identity, and the shared human impulse to find connection in the abstract. As the work continues to gain recognition, it solidifies the artist’s role as a pioneering voice in exploring the subconscious through visual language.
