RIPPLES
DECOLONIAL EXHIBITION
8 AUGUST - 13 SEPTEMBER 2024 | WEDNESDAY-SUNDAY 11AM-8PM
HYPHA STUDIOS | 107 HIGH STREET, STRATFORD, E15 2QQ
RIPPLES presents an evocative collection of installation, film, painting, photography, and mixed-media works by 20 emerging artists from the Royal College of Art (RCA). Directed by Jane Lee, Luis López, María Helena Toscano, Polo Farerra, and Ume Dahlia, along with six other curators, this exhibition challenges conventional narratives and delves into decolonial discourse through personal and communal lenses.
In our belief that there is no singular way to address decoloniality, we initiated an open call, inviting artists and curators at RCA to exchange their intimate reflections on decolonialism. Upholding principles of openness, care for reparations, and reflection, we selected 20 artists/teams and eight curators, each establishing a cohort that reflects their varying visions on the topic that ranges from discourses on diaspora communities to generational trauma and related social and cultural phenomena.
Under the themes of observing the history of control, resistance, and knowledge; transnational ways of knowing and value repatriation; and hidden narratives emerging and re-discovering identities, RIPPLES explores how decoloniality can be analyzed and mediated in contemporary times and offers an intergenerational platform to initiate and reflect on the decolonial discourse, not from the imperialist viewpoint but from personal narratives.
The exhibition will feature engaging conversations with curators during the private view and an array of programs throughout the exhibition period, such as artist talks that delve into the range of practices and performances of a healing ritual aimed at addressing the impacts of colonialism.
RIPPLES is supported by Hypha Studios and made possible by Sugar House Island.
EVENTS
August 08 6:00-9:00pm PV | Performance by Ume Dahlia & María Helena Toscano and Patrick Ziza
Followed by the directors’ talk | Drinks by @jimandtonicdistillery
August 16 7:00-8:00pm Artist Talk 1 <Generational Trauma | History of control, resistance, and knowledge>
RSVP here
Feat. Chrysa Kanari, Gugan Gill, Canaan Brown
Moderated by David Tomlinson
August 23 7:00-8:00pm Artist Talk 2 <Value Repatriation | Transnational ways of knowing, unlearning>
RSVP here
Feat. Weng Io Wong, Lujane Pagganwala, Amy Sarr
Moderated by Sylvia Tan
August 30 7:00-8:00pm Artist Talk 3 <Shifting Boundaries | Hidden narratives emerging, re-discovering identities>
RSVP here
Feat. Ume Dahlia, Polo Farrera, Emily Alice Mitchell
Moderated by Pon Chanarat
"The weak are not weak from the beginning, and the strong cannot remain strong forever. When the fortunes of the world suddenly change, the heel of invasion war rises, and wars of revenge arise. Invasion inevitably causes war. Therefore, how can there be a war for peace? How can anyone consider it happiness when their nation's thousand-year history is severed by foreign invasion, and millions of people become slaves and beasts under the tyranny of foreigners? Ah, how can the 'sword' be omnipotent, and how can 'force' be victorious?"
The Independent - Excerpt from "Overview of Impressions on Korean Independence," November 3, 1919
Han Yong-un (1879–1944)
With Ripples, we aim to analyze both past and present colonial impacts, including territorial invasion and the appropriation of physical objects or creative ideas that led to misrepresentations and injustices. We observe the vilification of the unfamiliar and the celebration of the self by revisiting or reinventing one’s identity to endure and heal through the wounds.
Who among us does not belong to the diaspora? Globalisation, one might argue in the context of colonialism and capitalist economic turns, but transnationalism that transcends imperialistic hegemony requires conscious, thoughtful, and careful translation/mediation. When transnationalism, whether it be geographical, social, or conceptual, is imposed and controlled, it perpetuates colonisation through hierarchy and violence, often in ways so subtle they reach the level of the subconscious.
By embracing the ripple, the waves over time, we aim to unlearn our current knowledge by reassessing the presence of colonial influences, proactively adopting new ways of thinking and practice, and celebrating that were once lost, repressed, or omitted. This polyvocal process may be painful and risk conceptual appropriation. Thus we gathered as a group aiming to cultivate full consciousness, transparently displaying each intention, and learning from the diverse strategies of different entities and individuals.
While sharing our own insights, we invite you to continue this dialogue with us to expand the diversity of strategies we could take to analyse decoloniality. Therefore, we cordially invite you to the artist talks and workshops. Together, we can further explore themes like the history of control, resistance, and knowledge; transnational ways of knowing and valuing repatriation; and the emergence and rediscovery of hidden narratives as the ripples of diaspora flow.
DAVID TOMLINSON is a London-based curator focussing his research on marginalised experience, particularly queer voice within diaspora and processes of emergence. David researches and presents LGBTQIA+ narrative from works in the Tate collection, most recently British Art Nouveau and the Shock of the Aesthetes (2023) and Logical/Biological: Queer family and Rene Matic (2024). Previously, David worked long-term within communities in the UK and Nigeria as writer, editor and school leader. David has written and presented for the Guardian, CAFOD and Scholastic Publications and spoken for VSO on BBC Radio 4. David’s piece ‘Yesterday’s Darling: the Remarkable Return of Pauline Boty’ will be published in Silicone in Autumn 2024.
HUIYUI LAN has followed an intuitive approach to life from childhood, believing in a higher spiritual presence that shapes destiny. Her artistic journey has led her towards experimental exhibition forms that explore the boundary between reality and illusion. Huiyu excels in addressing objective issues through metaphysical and abstract expressions. With a background in theatrical character design, she is deeply fascinated by Eastern philosophy, history, Western philosophy, theosophy, and metaphysical new experimentalism. Her curatorial work often breaks traditional boundaries, exploring the intersections of time and space, and seeking to unveil deeper meanings behind everyday life through art. Huiyu aims to encourage audiences to think and reflect on the world they inhabit.
JACQUELINE SCHWARTZ is a London-based curator focusing on public programming in cultural institutions. She holds a degree in Museum Studies and History from UCSB and is currently researching for her MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art. Jacqueline has worked in collaboration with many arts-based organisations, including roles at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Olympia Auctions, Gazelli Art House, Hoxton Radio, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara. She also co-founded Entheoscope Magazine, serving as Chief Content Curator since 2021. Her practice blends roles as researcher, artist, host, and mediator, using her background in anticolonial museum theory to critique Western cultural institutions and connect academia with practical discourse.
JANE LEE is an art director and independent curator based in London, UK, and Seoul, Korea. She adopts "constellation curating," a holistic approach that integrates diverse domains, experimenting with various curatorial methodologies to enable practitioners to flourish in creative and self-sufficient ways. Her notable works include curating LAAD for William Blake's Universe at the Fitzwilliam Museum (2024), establishing an artist residency at Seoul National University (2023), founding and directing an alternative space Punto Blu Seoul (2018-2022), producing Netflix: The Massacre of Kingdom (2021), managing Smog Free Tower Project at Gwangju Design Biennale (2017), and assisting Wrap around the Time at Nam June Paik Art Center (2016). She earned a BA in Economics and Visual Arts at Brown University (2013), a diploma in Art and Business in the Contemporary Era at Sotheby's Institute of Art in London (2011), and an MA in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art. (2024)
LUIS LOPEZ is a visual artist, archivist, and independent curator. He completed the BA in Contemporary Arts from the USFQ (2018) with a minor in Art History and the postgraduate diploma in Art Applied to Society from Überbau_house (2021). He participated in the HABEAS DATA VI residency for Contemporary Art Research (2019). He is currently pursuing an MA in Curating Contemporary Art at the RCA (2024). He was the mediation assistant for the NAW exhibition parallel to the XIV Cuenca Biennial (2018). He curated exhibitions at El Domo (Fretless Foundation), Chawpi, No Lugar, Puente Art Lab, Khôra, Espacio Violenta (Guayaquil), Cumandá Urban Park and the Contemporary Art Center of Quito.
PON CHANARAT is an interdisciplinary curator with a diverse background that spans carpentry, cultural studies in film and literature, and social theory. With a deep understanding of dealing antiques and experience as a gallery manager for bespoke functional art, he brings a tangible appreciation of craftsmanship and history to his work. Currently refining his curatorial skills in contemporary art at the prestigious Royal College of Art, he merges his diverse expertise and interest in history to create thought-provoking exhibitions that bridge the past and present, blending the tactile with the theoretical.
SYLVIA TAN is a curator based in London, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Her curatorial concerns center on space, border, and diaspora, exploring in these contexts cross-cultural experience, visibility of antagonism, and the power dynamics between individuality and structurality. She has had curatorial engagements with institutions including Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA Edge), Para Site, and Power Station of Art. She has also worked in galleries and art fairs, including David Zwirner and Art Basel. She received her BA in Cultural Management from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2023) and is currently studying in MA Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art.
TIM C. HUANG is a graduate of the University of Leeds with a first-class honours Bachelor's degree in Art and Design (Industrial) and is pursuing a Master's degree in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art in the United Kingdom. His extensive experience includes project management for the scenic design of Puy du Fou's Shanghai indoor theme park, City of Lights, in 2021. In 2020, he interned at Bold Tendencies, a prominent public art space in London, and curated an online exhibition for the 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe, UK. Complementing his curatorial expertise, Tim is also a sculptor and performance artist. He exhibited in the FUAM Prize Exhibition at Leeds in 2022 and showcased his paintings in the experimental exhibition "Commence in Five Minutes" the same year.
ARTISTS
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Looming Behind (2024) Stretched fabric, 70x105cm
Looming Behind revolves around the current immigration crisis in Senegal, and the notion of leaving and being left behind. As an increasing number of our youth is embarking towards the Mediterranean, we are all affected by this crisis, the desperation surrounding it and the mysteries and lost lives of our loved ones. As two men look behind at the land while others stare towards the sea, the image reminds us of everything and everyone emigrants leave behind in the midst of desperation for a better future for themselves and their loved ones. The choice of fabric serves as a metaphor as African fabrics have historically transcended borders, but also brings forward how commodified and dehumanized our migrants have become in global discourse and news. Alternating depending on the light, the bicolor nature of Chantoum serves to illustrate the dichotomous nature and outcomes of emigration, as well as our now ambivalent relationship to the ocean due to the crisis. No matter what the outcome of the journey is, those that leave and those that stay become a memory.
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The Fantastic Memoir of the Life of Lucius Alexander, A Haint (2024) Film, 5’00”
This fictional memoir follows the life of a young Black British man with supernatural powers attempting to repatriate a stolen Taino sculpture, the Birdman spirit, from the British Museum to Southern Jamaica. The film installation is a moving image piece with a percussive, collaged editing style, interplaying text animations and live-action footage with digital animations and music. Set in the 19th century Holborn, London, the story was inspired by the narratives of Black writers living “free” in Georgian Britain.
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See No Evil (2023) Oil on canvas, 160x100cm
See No Evil is a silent protest for the children that suffered from the crimes of their elders. The work relies on a play between the eyes of the viewer and the subject in the painting, presenting the powerful stare of the child that casts shame for all the wrongdoings they have been involuntarily involved. The children stay abject, displaced, and rejected, finding themselves in a liminal space with the green line that separates them from the peace, when a human is deemed not-worthy of humanism and becomes a part of the collateral damage.
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Incredulous, Expecting Occupancy (2023) Mixed media, 240x100cm
Incredulous, Expecting Occupancy decentralises colonial archival methodologies, looking to water, land and absence to recover histories of erasure. Juxtaposing footage and documentation from England and the Caribbean, the artist explores the complexities of the relationship between her maternal and paternal lineage. Ghostly photo transfers of family photographs lie beside documentation of plantations, exploring the weight of silence and absence as archives in dialogue with the location of Sugar House Island. Disrupting linear Western constructs of time and place, she questions how we might exist in limbo between these entities, holding space for the liminality of mixedness. Displaying inherited artefacts from her late grandmother open to the air, Mitchell encourages these objects to live and to decay.
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Gardening in Summer (2024) Super 8 film, 4’59’’
Peedis, Expecting Occupancy (2024) Traditional seating made from turned tulip wood and cotton webbing, 40x40cm, Variable height
In Gardening In Summer, we meet Gill's mother and Nani, who are growing herbs and vegetables in their large Birmingham garden. As with her earlier work Making Roti (2023), cooking and preparation play a large role in Gill's practice, and the significance of these acts of love, care, strength, and familiarity resonates beyond the everyday. Here, the significance of the domestic intersects with a love of craft and creating.
By taking inspiration from her great-grandfather's furniture making, Gill creates peedis (stools) for viewers to watch the film from, thus extending her welcome. In collaborating on original music inspired by the cinema of 1960s Punjab, she explores the traditions, care, love, and scatterings of a family separated only by time.
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Your Land is My Land (2023) Acrylic and ink on latex substrate, wooden poll, hessian rope, 120x225x50cm
Your Land is My Land explores the colonial history of Vietnam, particularly in and around 1955, right after French rule and shortly before the start of the Vietnam/American War. Referencing a complex web of connotations deeply rooted in the historical dynamics of rubber plantations during the era of French colonization in Vietnam, this piece consists of a pair of cast latex doors, morphed into an installation that features a double-sided door while the other side presents a partial map of Saigon from 1955. Laden with symbolism, this glue-like substance acts as a signifier and protagonist, fusing on materials of importance in the artist's life to help shape and contextualize his identity and ancestral past.
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Disenchanted Chimney's I and II (2024) - part of a larger installation from Murmurs Of A Silver Sleeting Hyphen (2024)
Mixed media relief panels, Panel I : 122cm x 122cmx 16cm, Panel II : 122cm x 122cm x 92cm
Disenchanted Chimney's I and II are works from a source, Pagganwala's RCA Graduate Show installation Murmurs of a Silver Sleeting Hyphen –. Describing her process of works evolving, changing and creating new as 'transitional,' the artist sees this as an attempt "to over-simulate the viewer and transport them through an immersive and changing experience. Such is the beauty of the process. I have created an equilibrium, making the experience feel fast paced as well as slow simultaneously." As such, the panels and the origin piece are deeply layered and different for each viewer. The artist positions details and hints at each turn: a shift in sensory motion, causing an oscillation between here and there, past and present, reality and not.
Ume Dahlia is a Mexican-Chilean artist based in London. Her practice focuses on encounters that are interwoven in different cultural identities. From a sensibility and interest in psychology, anthropology and mysticism, she gathers material and symbolic cultural content to elaborate on her practice. Through standing on Latin-American ecofeminist grounds, the artist addresses issues related to gender and cultural trauma and its reparations.
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La Concha y La Raíz (2024) Mixed media, Variable size
Through the creation of symbolic objects (a shell and a root), the artists Maria Helena Toscano and Ume Dahlia embark on a profound journey, employing a ceremonial release ritual characterised by healing practices and hidden memories. The sculptures themselves become conduits for expression, activated by a ritual that serves a dual purpose: to confront our contemporary present and to heal colonial wounds. La Concha y La Raíz invites the audience to witness a transformative process, where art becomes a conduit for healing, confrontation, and the acknowledgment of personal and historical trauma. The installation is complemented by an excerpt video from a 6-hour exploration session with the artists. Through a connection with an essence, latinidad, and sisterhood, the artists forged a communication channel transcending language, engaging in a profound dialogue with themselves. Through this experience, they enacted rituals whose outcomes and beginnings are unknown, yet somehow inherent within themselves.
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Personal Space (2024) Oil, cold wax and pigments on canvas, 30x20x3.5cm
America (2023) Oil and pastel on canvas, 170x170cm
Mother and Child (2023) Acrylic on canvas, 100x130cm
Mariana's exploration in painting is a practice that is shifting and evolving, whose marks live in the liminal space between representation and abstraction. Her compositions appear through a spontaneous technique that brings to life complex narratives that explore tragedy and joy, the ambiguities and contradictions of human nature. Domestic scenes, intimate self-reflections, the feminine and motherhood are subjects that appear constantly in her work. A troupe of vividly haunting figures in various stages of life and death employs evocative symbolism and poetic figuration to transport the viewer into a world where they are forced to confront the monsters of internalised colonialism.
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I feel (2024) Mixed medium (Installation and Performance), 160x170cm
I Feel is a multifaceted exploration of the themes of confinement, oppression, and endurance, expressed through a blend of durational performance, film, and sculpture. At its core, this work interrogates the physical and psychological structures that bind individuals, challenging both the artist and the audience to confront the realities of these invisible yet pervasive forces of a collapsing system.
"Cooking is always with me, which gives me an unfamiliar sense of relief."
As a Chinese expatriate living in London, Ningyue's feelings of difference brought about by geographic shuttling have reshaped her fundamental understanding of the concepts of body, identity and nation.
With regard to the initial questions raised by the geographical location of the body, Ningyue turns her attention to the cooking culture and the absorption process of oesophageal digestion in her hometown of Ningbo, China. The body serves as the driving force, the affects of appeasement are kneaded and baked into the dough. The affects of the unconscious habitus gradually expand, calcify, fragment and flow at will, and Ningyue uses dough as a medium to provoke reflection on the body's suspension in power relations.
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Sugar Trade (2024) Sugar and bricks, Variable size
Ningyue Qian's artwork delves into the deep connection between cooking, social phenomena, and human history. A keen observer of human behaviour, Ningyue examines the often-overlooked details of everyday life, especially various stages of producer-consumer interactions with food, to uncover broader disconnections, social patterns and cultural identities. Inspired by a walk along the River Thames, Ningyue reflects on bricks as cultural symbols, representing the politics and economics of cities, their inhabitants, and the historical processes shaping them. Ningyue uniquely alters sugar's temperature, colour, and chemical structure to breathe new life into it, expressing the reshaping of power relations. Each installation thus becomes a dynamic medium for reimagining structures and unstable boundaries.
Co-founder of the LUX-19 film festival, Farrera Cuevas has exhibited his work at major venues, including the National Center for the Arts, Tate Modern, and the Malta Biennale 2024. His photobook "In Search of Absences" is part of the Kassel Dummy Award selection, and he has been nominated as Photographer of the Year 2024 by the London Camera Exchange. His work has been shown in Mexico, the UK, Chile, Malta, Spain, Japan, China, and Australia. He holds a degree in Visual Arts with honors from "ENPEG- La Esmeralda" and has studied at the Old Academy of San Carlos (FAD- UNAM) and Universidad Iberoamericana. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in photography at the Royal College of Art in London.
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The Banality of the Mask (2023) Digital photography, 60x40cm
Inspired by John Carpenter's movie "They Live," this series offers a critical lens on the decaying ghosts of capitalism, which Farrera interprets as remnants of the past agenda. Farrera sees these as mere reminiscences of banality and nothingness, so he delves into portraying and deconstructing societal "monsters" or ideologies, asking, 'What lies beneath the mask we show to society?' 'Perhaps beneath the surface lies the same expression, something simpler than expected and yet standardized by the masses?' 'In any case, where did it originate?' He reflects on the vacuity of social media content and the similarity in trends, contemporary culture, art, and fashion, which heavily sway us regardless of our wills. Special thanks to Jose Molina for production.
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De cena, sopa (Soup for dinner) (2024) Oil and oil bar on linen, 61x61cm
De cena, sopa ("Soup for dinner") is a work that revolves around loneliness and personal experience of the artist at the age of thirteen. Dinner is the most important meal of the day where it is often celebrated with a group, but the artist had to have dinner by herself most of the time because her father was preoccupied with work. This lonliness has been the key motif for her to observe and understand the transnationalism, for sharing a meal is not only an act of a gathering but also a platform for engagements that reveals bonds and power dynamics depending on the size and the format of the dining varied in different cultures.
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Indigo darpan (2024) Cotton and soundscape installation (Soundscape credits: Shruti Gaonkar, Joe Hirst), 10’00”
Gaonkar blends technology with colours and form, speaking directly about British Indigo planters and state-sanctioned exploitation in Bengal region in India in the 1800’s. On the headphones we hear a glitched audio montage of the play 'Nil Darpan / Indigo Mirror' by Dinabandhu Mitra, the cover of which Gaonkar brings to us dyed in indigo and turmeric. The English translation of the play was banned by the imperialist British Government, out of embarrassment at its outspoken naming of the cruelties common within this exploitative trade. On the floor are a pile of cooking utensils wrapped in cotton fabric and hand dyed indigo cotton yarn. Some are activated, some lie still. As Mitra tells us, "give us food we are starving to death, we will not grow indigo what will my family eat."
Her practice explores the relationship between dominant histories and personal narratives, and seeks to create multifaced interpretations of the past and present through photography. She reacts to obscured histories through multiple mediums and uses museums, archives and collections as a legacy to retell and reinvent colonial history.
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Reliving Limehouse History (2024) 4 digital prints, Variable size
Not far from Sugar House Island, Limehouse was London's first Chinatown, emerging between the 1880s and the 1960s along colonial trade routes in the docklands. During this period, many Chinese immigrants made their living through laundry services and restaurants. Limehouse also became infamous for its opium dens, a legacy of the tea and opium trade. In her photographic work Reliving Limehouse History, Weiyue Sun documents the streets of the Limehouse district and then destroys the images with a brush and cleanser. This act symbolizes the laborious efforts of Chinese immigrants to sustain their livelihoods in 19th-century London and even today. Through this process, Sun seeks to revive a forgotten history, inviting viewers to confront the weighty narrative of the Chinese diaspora's living conditions.
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Rage in Silence is a Form of Resistance (2024) Found objects, metal rods, muslin cloth, MDF, soil, oyster shells, ravels, plaster, brown sugar, straw, mouse traps, earthenware ceramics, and wire, Variable size
Weng-Io Wong creatively merges materials like Chunambo (a historic construction material used in Macao during its colonial period), mild steel, and brown sugar to explore altering boundaries in identities and cityscapes. The art captures Macao's evolving city lines and shapes, with a distinctive feature at its center: an abstract human figure that acts as a metaphor for the journey for transformation, metamorphosis, and hybridity. By juxtaposing this with other materials in their natural form, Wong emphasizes openness for connection and conversation across generations while providing a multi-sensory experience with various smells, like sweat, brown sugar, and soil. By doing so, Weng highlights the scents of our collective memory, deepening audience engagement to obtain new perspectives on our shared past.
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Something is still up in the air (2024) Mixed media, Variable size
Yicai Pan presents mutated creatures and fragments of buildings in the imagined landscape of the abandoned modern society. Industrial materials such as metal, foam, discarded wires, and pipes are used to depict the illogical and chaotic state, where each element becomes a monument with a subtle traces of human existence.
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retrospect (2023) Steel, wood, and wax, 145x90x33cm
Liu forms conceptual thoughts around borders and migration with metaphors of cement, locks, fences, and walls, raising contemplation on the barriers and feelings of displacement in living spaces and resettling experiences. Together, by revealing the forgotten colonial history of the Chinese diaspora and exploring the complexities around the concept of home, the artist provokes decolonial interventions, reiterating the unannounced living experience that underlies the imperialist narratives of migration.
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Unfolded Boundary (2024) Charcoal on rice papers mount on folding screen, 170X240cm
Yujin Son finds her medium in the surrounding environment and transforms them into the unique material that goes beyond mere physical alteration. This approach is to propose a poetic lens to view the relationships between the work and all participants in everyday landscape, whether it be the materials, the audience, the society, or life itself. Unfolded Boundary is a work that symbolically expresses her experiences in London, conveying the awareness of boundaries and the clash and realization of developing personal subjectivity.