ART BASEL IN BASEL 2026

Utilizing materials such as straw, willow, textiles, and paper, Hong’s works are conceived not as fixed objects but as potential states activated through movement, sound, and bodily engagement. Drawing on disappearing craft techniques such as straw craft and basket weaving, the artist translates their materiality and structures into the language of contemporary sculpture, exploring the boundary between traditional craft and contemporary art. Repetitive acts of weaving, plaiting, and hanging form the structural basis of the works while generating sculptural rhythm and movement.

Prop 7. Becoming Birds enlarges a toy made for birds to the scale of the human body. Hong’s ongoing interest in anthropocentric histories and systems of thought has led her to explore animal agency, while her research into and collection of insect and bird sounds informs the recent work An ancient bird, moonflowers, an anti-Japanese women’s labor protest, a katydid, a cicada, rituals, winds, a yoke, elephants, and a river.

Based in the UK, Young In Hong has continuously explored the relationships between performance and sculpture, craft and sound, expanding her practice through international exhibitions and institutional projects. The presentation at Art Basel in Basel 2026 offers an encounter with Hong’s recent works as a sensory environment imbued with the potential to function simultaneously as performative props and as a kind of three-dimensional score.