YOUNG IN HONG

At We Where, Hong attends to the subject of ‘communities’ that become forgotten in contemporary society. She recognizes the loss of a communal space that premodern folks believed to be real, i.e., sacred areas in which the spirits of living organisms including animals, humans, and plants could communicate through a natural connection, and wishes for the recovery of such relationships of equality. Furthermore, the artist critiques the reductive and exclusive bent and the hierarchical social system of the contemporary era.

The main hall of the gallery (PKM) houses an embroidery work and an installation inspired by shrine iconography, which has acted as a gateway between the spiritual world and the material world as a tool of collective ritual ceremony; a sound installation that invites a pair of grandmother-granddaughter elephants living a communal lifestyle; and two weaving pieces that poetically highlight the voices of female textile workers of the past. Hong’s newest works create an environment in which diverse subjects and spirits coexist. At the annex (PKM+), works in a variety of media, such as silhouette drawing, embroidery work, felt pieces, scores, and a musical performance references specific time and space from the postwar modernization period in Korea. This points to the possibility of re-writing the past to a diverse range of individual stories instead of a single, unified history.

Through this exhibition, Young In Hong pays careful and respectful attention to the disappearing spaces or marginalized voices under the pressure of metanarratives through her flexible methodology of art, while integrating them into an exhibition like weaving weft and warp, thereby inviting us to that horizontal community.

Young In Hong, who is currently based in Bristol, England, received a BA and MA from Seoul National University and an MA and a PhD from Goldsmiths College in London. She has presented a number of solo exhibitions and projectsin Europe and Asia, including ICA London, Korean Cultural Centre in the UK, Art Sonje Center, Art Club 1563, andAlternative Space LOOP. Her performances have taken place in globally recognized performance spaces includingBlock Universe in London, Arnolfini in Bristol, and Turner Contemporary in Margate. Further, her works have beenshowcased in group exhibitions at top-tier art institutions including the National Museum of Modern andContemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, and Asia Culture Center, as well asinternational art events including the Gwangju Bienniale and La Triennale di Milano. In 2019, Hong was shortlistedfor the Korea Artist Prize at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and received the KimsechoongArt Prize in 2011 and the Suk-Nam Art Prize in 2003. She is currently a Reader at the Bath School of Art, UK.