Mar. 9 – 25, 2023
Woo Hannah: Appearances
March 9-March 25, 2023
South Korean artist Woo Hannah presents her latest collection of fabric sculptures and installations at Frieze No. 9 Cork Street. Titled Appearances, the exhibition runs from March 9 to March 25 and features works created between 2020 and 2023. It explores femininity and challenges conventional ways of objectifying and dissecting certain subjects. This marks Woo's first solo exhibition outside of South Korea.
Represented by G Gallery in Seoul, South Korea, Woo is known for using fabric to create fantastical and mythical worlds in visual forms such as drawing, sculpture, and installation. Her use of fabric, a material conventionally associated with femininity and manual labor, subverts the traditional grandeur of sculpture and offers a new perspective on the medium: passivity and flexibility. Fabric cannot be completely broken or destroyed, and if damaged, it can be repaired. Her subversive attitude towards the masculinity represented by sculptures is particularly evident in the way her installations suspend the fabric in midair, allowing it to sag. The fabric, the sculpture, is unable to resist the effects of gravity and dangles helplessly instead, as if it has been hanged.
In Appearances, Woo's fabric sculptures challenge traditional representations of male and female anatomy by blurring the lines between the two. With a playful and lighthearted touch, she presents sexual anatomy as equal subjects of humor, devoid of any sense of difference or discrimination. Her works embody both wit and cuteness, while also exploring the macabre and monstrous. They bring a fresh and subversive perspective to the medium, breaking away from its typical heaviness and rigidity.
After discovering that one of her kidneys had shrunk abnormally in 2019, Woo began a journey of self-exploration through the creation of a fabric bag that mimicked the shape of various organs, expressing feelings of loss and possessiveness. The organs range from the uterus to the hippocampus and even blood vessels.
In the Bag with You – Take Your Shape series, part of the Sculpture Impulse exhibition at the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art in 2022, Woo invited the audience to participate by donning and embodying the shapes of the organs of various animals, including humans. Viewers were able to observe their own transformation through mirrors and explore the relationships between different species.
Her work in Appearances has since expanded to include organs of various living creatures and mythical beings, such as dragons, showcasing her boundless imagination and unique perspective. This development stems from Woo's desire to avoid the frustration and guilt that comes with being a top predator, as humans were born. By embracing an egalitarian view of all life on Earth, she aims to foster horizontal relationships.
On the opening day of the exhibition, Woo will be joined by Chus Martinez, the director of the Art Institute at the FHNW Academy of Art and Design in Basel, for a conversation about the exhibition and key themes in the artist's practice at 4 p.m.
About the Artist
Born in 1988 in Seoul, Woo Hanna received a B.F.A. from the School of Visual Arts, Korea National University of Arts and a M.F.A. from the same school.
Solo exhibitions of her work have been organized at Seongeun Art Cube (2020) and PS Sarubia (2019). Selected group exhibitions featuring her work include Summer Love, Songeun Art Center (2022); Sculpture Impulse, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (2022); 2020 Next Code, Daejeon Museum of Art (2020); Nothing Twice, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (2019); Super Future Food, ARKO Art Center (2019); Linkin-out, Ilmin Museum of Art (2019); and LOTUS LAND, Asia Culture Center (2017). She received funding from the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture in 2018 and 2019, and Travel Grant from Ilhyun Museum in 2015. She lives and works in Seoul.