Artists

Heemin Chung

Press release

My work often begins with a very subtle and fleeting sensation, almost like a whisper that moves between the physical and the virtual. – Heemin Chung

For her first solo exhibition at Thaddaeus Ropac, and the first presentation to take place in Europe, Seoul-based artist Heemin Chung presents a new body of paintings, sculptures and a video. Her artworks explore the sensorial impact of transitional states – from darkness to light, from virtual to physical – in the rapidly changing city of Seoul. As Chung explains, ‘In this city, technology has gone beyond mere convenience; it has fundamentally altered our relationship with space and time.’ Titled UMBRA in reference to the deep shadows cast by celestial bodies, the exhibition unfolds a world of shadows, replicas and rituals. This investigation of our contemporary condition includes a reimagining of the traditional Korean funeral ritual Chobun.

The interplay between the physical and the virtual, the felt and the replicated, the seen and the unseen is central to Chung’s work. For her new series of paintings she was inspired by the objects that she encounters on early morning walks in the streets of Seoul: from manmade urban detritus to elements belonging to the natural world. Translucent and white layers cloud dark backgrounds with hints of purple and pink, capturing the softness of light, the fog and the subtle gradations of colour that occur at the break of dawn.