Exist, as an Object

The exhibition features Minye Yue's monumental textile installation and  Jemima Moore's paintings, where Haedong Lee and Yidan Kim's audio-olfactory performance "Restructured Object-Scape" will be taking place. Together, they investigate how we can envision our future by moving away from human-centric perspective, inspired by the modalities that natural or artificial objects take to understand and interact with the world.

"Moving away from the sapiens,
Exploring new realms, curious.
Objects converse in their silent way,
Inviting us to ponder, inviting us to stray.

Departing from ownership's grip,
In this object-scape, perceptions flip.
Lines blur, boundaries fade,
In this garden of beings, a serenade."

Participating Practitioners

1. Haedong Lee is an interdisciplinary artist who has been actively producing sound performances, recordings, media, and installation-based artworks.

He cultivates a distinctive Sound Ecosystem, where the spacetime of sublime notes intertwines with unexpected sounds made by cowbells he creates along with various objects and electronic instruments. He employs this theme as his primary means of eliciting emotional responses and stimulating intellectual engagement while exploring the answer to the Origin of Sound through the study of shamanism, folk beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, and labor songs from various tribes and cultures in West Africa, Asia, and Europe.

With the view that sound has played a major role in humans becoming the devastating top predator and led to the Anthropocene, he has explored the context in which Sound has been used politically and economically in the history of civilization. Inspired by cowbell, the instrument that relegates livestock sacrificed for human beings for a long time, he ignites social discussions about Misanthropy and Anti-natalism, envisioning a new shackle for mankind(homo-sapiens) that will be created by the forthcoming species alongside homo-sapiens gradual extinction, calling it Sapiens Bell.

2. Jemima Moore (b.1992) is an artist who uses drawing as a means to investigate ideas of the unknown, the intangible, and the absurd to produce large-scale drawings and paintings. The artist studied History of Art at Cambridge University before working as a commercial interior designer.  After eight years in the industry, she returned to study Fine Art at West Dean College and is now undertaking an MA Painting at the Royal College of Art. 

This body of work is made using Rubens' "Peace and War" as a starting point, from which she made over 30 studies in oil pastels. Each study is an investigation into a different aspect of the original painting, laying down the first element that she notices and tracing the movements of her eye as she looks at the Rubens. At a certain stage, she starts to respond to the marks laid down on the paper rather than to the original Rubens.  In this way, a new abstracted composition is generated through a series of fragments, each one mapping out a form of visual thinking in relation to the original. There is no final answer or composition but a series of investigations.

It also refers to the idea of logic and the absurd, for taking logic as far as logically possible only gets you to absurdity. In this way, it can be understood as a celebration of the non-sensical, absurd, subtle, and complex aspects of life. 

3. Minye Yue.There is nothing inevitable in Minye Yue’s garden. Rather than merely existing, her creations thrive, and within each of their forms and gestures lie their desires and the values they have generated.

The stems navigate gracefully through the unknown, refusing to linger passively under the indifferent and meaningless workings of nature. They are unyielding to predetermined laws, overcoming gravity, facing the clouds, and reaching out to the endless azure. They choose every action meticulously, choosing directions that lead toward the values they seek.

4. Yidan Kim is an artist who works with olfactory materials and the sense of smell as a medium to create intangible and tangible sensory images in the forms of sculpture, installation, and performance.

She/they have studied the techniques of making incense and fragrance oil and ‘Hyang-do,' the traditional olfactory art form of East Asia, and have researched olfactory culture and olfactory object-mediators from all over the world. 

Focusing on the sense of smell, which has been undervalued compared to other senses, she/they have proposed the concept of the expansion of the overall senses through smell and the expansion of consciousness that it triggers. Furthermore, Yidan explores the sensory experiences of neurodivergent people and various sensory spaces of human and non-human species. 

5. Jane Lee. Having worked at nine international start-ups and four distinguished art institutions in the UK, Korea, and the Netherlands, Jane curates immersive spaces where individuals, artists, businesses, and communities converge, igniting sparks of inspiration and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations.

Currently based in London for her MA Curating Contemporary Art at the RCA, Jane is leading a global art campaign, directing the spatial narrative for architectural projects, fostering dialogue between the artistic landscapes of Korea and the global stage, and advising emerging art-related enterprises.

With thanks to the below artists

Poster Design: Kay Oh
Photography: Polo Farrera
Video: Canaan Brown
Catering: Dadada Collective