Six artists explore personal narratives beyond politics at Atelier Hermes in Seoul

The exhibition 'The Second Life' runs through Oct. 5

Installation view of “The Second Life” at the Atelier Hermes in Seoul (Courtesy of Hermes Enterprise Foundation)

In the group exhibition, “The Second Life,” Atelier Hermes in Seoul has gathered six artists who explore how individual lives are shaped beyond social and political discourse, drawing on personal stories.

Curator Ahn So-yeon said Thursday that the participating artists — Bek Hyun-jin, Lee Yona, Han & Mona, Kim Bo-kyung and Park Min-ha — each took a "slice of life" approach to create new work for the exhibition.

“These days, an overwhelming number of exhibitions are being produced around socio-political issues such as the environment and climate crisis," Ahn said. "Rather than focusing on socially or politically ‘correct’ themes or collective ideas, the exhibition aims to explore how deeply personal issues can expand and evolve within those contexts."

Han & Mona, a duo based in Seoul and Edinburgh, presents "Listen, I Know," inspired during the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital installation flashes of Morse code to express the situations of conflict and negotiation they encounter in cross-cultural engagement.

“During the pandemic, I was stuck indoors and when I looked outside there was a light blinking as though it was crying out to me,” the duo’s Yoo Mona said of her inspiration for the piece.

“You might feel the blinking of Morse code is a bit slow, which was intentional as we wanted to reflect elements from our own way of communication in the work like the tone and glances when we talk,” Yoo said. "As we have different cultural backgrounds and grew up speaking different languages, small cracks or misunderstanding emerge time to time. That is, however, how our communication expands."

Her partner Ma Hanqing is from the Hui community, composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam. Most of them reside in northern China, while some of them live in metropolitan cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Ma said.

Installation view of "Listen, I Know" by Han & Mona at the Atelier Hermes in Seoul (Courtesy of the artists, Hermes Enterprise Foundation)

Kim, a Berlin based artist who uses knitting, paper weaving and drawing, confessed she almost abandoned her career as an artist, but was able to continue when she came up with her acanthus leaf motif, drawing inspiration from the plant’s tenacious hold on life.

Park shows the media installation “Ghost Anatomy,” where she incorporates a virtual character, Noa, created with AI, into her daily life. The piece looks at the way the character explores its own subconscious.

Installation view of "Ghost Anatomy" by Park Min-ha at the Atelier Hermes in Seoul (Courtesy of the artist, Hermes Enterprise Foundation)

Bek, who is a singer, composer, actor and director as well as an artist, presents 21 drawings and five paintings on "hanji," Korean traditional mulberry paper, that depict moments of his current life, now marked by shoulder pain — becoming middle-aged, according to the artist — and a changed rhythm as a result.

The artist said his new paintings were changed in style after he was fascinated by the ink painting "Sehando (Winter Scene)" by Kim Jeong-hui (1786-1856), a Korean calligrapher and scholar from the late Joseon Dynasty, for how it depicts the snow-covered landscape with seemingly unfinished lines.

Lee, who left Busan to live in New Zealand at age 11, translates the tension that she feels between traveling and rootedness with a stainless-steel installation.

"The Second Life" runs through Oct. 5 at Atelier Hermes in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul.