THEO presents Patchwork, a solo exhibition by Seungwan Ha from 11 November to 8 December 2023.

'Bellum omnium contra omnes (The war of all against all) '

Seungwan Ha has been working to extract the narrative structure of various stories, such as myths, tales, and local folk tales, to reconstruct events and then reproduce images to explore discourse through contemporary narratives. This exhibition is a prelude to a unified view of the artist's world that builds on the works/series he has presented in the past. While the previous works were mainly visualisations that reconstruct and reproduce various narratives and worldviews that can be encountered in the real world, this exhibition focuses on the formation of the artist's own worldview, which incorporates the narratives, symbols, and forms that the artist has been dealing with as components. The fragmentary narratives, images, and thematic consciousness of the artist's previous works will be presented through the formation of a worldview that responds to and penetrates the artist's strengths of 'intense visual composition'.

In his book Leviathan , Thomas Hobbes described the birth of the state as "a tacit contract between men, in primitive societies, where the right of every man to do as he pleased led to the war of all against all, which resulted in perpetual war and slaughter; but men, recognising the consequences of annihilation, put an end to the struggle, and ceded their rights to one sovereign for protection from outside." Motivated by Hobbes's ideas in Leviathan, the artist realises the concept of the state as a creature in the shape of a ragged giant, made up of the bodies of its citizens. It also constitutes a world that expands in the future as the components of these creatures are replaced/substituted or recombined.

Among the previously presented series, 'Patchwork Golem' (2022) will evolve through 'Patchwork Family Man' (2023) and 'Patchwork Hero' (2023), which will eventually gain new life through the worldview given in this exhibition. From the Frankenstein-like figure of the combined ragged giant to the cyborg combined with mechanical devices to assist the body, from the small screen to the large screen combined with multiple screens, the evolving or expanding life reflects the state of war of all against all: 'Man's selfish nature to protect himself inevitably shapes the form of a powerful force to realise it'. At the same time, it tells the story of the war of the mortal gods against the society and state constituted through it. The main forms (and the result of various agreements) of the entries - replacement, substitution, assembly, combination, and expansion - are presented as a body and a state (the mortal god) formed in this state of struggle, and through the Exhibition they come together to form a world.

The artist's new series, which begins with 'Patchwork', recontextualises the fragmentary properties of his previous works, making them interchangeable, and, like the format borrowed for this exhibition, they have the potential to be combined and expanded in an infinite number of cases. At the same time, the overall philosophical questions about the true nature that the artist has been exploring, along with the various symbols/narratives that are formed as he acquires various ambivalent attributes (such as old/new), is a point where we can look forward to the artist's own grand worldview that will be formed in the future.

Chanyong Chong (THEO Assistant Director)

Press release courtesy THEO.