〈The Call of the Wild〉, 2024

The Call of the Wild, Rabbit&Tiger Gallery, Seoul, 2024, Installation view

Gazes – A genealogy of Hiibrid(Hi+brid), 2024. ink, bronze pigment, water color, conte on paper, 162.2x130.3cm

The work arranges six hybrid lifeforms in a genealogical manner, breaking down the boundaries between humans, animals, and plants, and presenting them as beings that share different temporalities and environments. Golden lines and fragmented human figures evoke a nonhuman gaze, unsettling the boundary between observer and observed, and questioning anthropocentric systems of vision. Moreover, ‘Hiibrid’—a coined term combining “hybrid” and “hi”—embodies a gesture of hospitality toward incomplete and heterogeneous beings.

Gazes – Mantes, 2024, ink, bronze pigment, water color on paper, 53x45cm

Gazes – Moths, 2024, ink, bronze pigment, water color on paper, 53x45cm

The works belong to the <Gazes> series, where golden lines can once again be observed.

Real insect species such as the Mantid Fly, Orchid Mantis, and Atlas Moth appear. Based on an interest in biological mutation, hybridity, and deformity, these pieces reintroduce such creatures into newly provided habitats and visualize them within the artworks. In the Gazes series, the ecosystems inhabited by animals and insects were imagined and constructed as a single landscape painting. The spatial settings in which these beings dwell were inspired by selected Chochungdo (paintings of flowers and insects) from Korea and elements commonly depicted in Japanese folk paintings—such as skies, clouds, water (waves and rivers), rocks, smoke, and plants (trees and grass). These visual motifs were appropriated, connected, and reinterpreted to create cohesive habitats for each creature.