South Korean artist Joung Young-Ju presents a slice of Seoul to the UK through a new solo exhibition at Almine Rech. Housed at the gallery’s London location, Way Back Home comprises of a series of large-scale paintings of Korean shanty towns that appear photographic from a distance, but reveal intensely detailed compositions created on traditional hanji paper.
Dating back to the third century and sourced from indigenous mulberry trees, hanji paper is revered for its durability and water absorbency. The paper is often used in the construction of Korean homes and served as both the material and conceptual foundation to Young-Ju’s warm cityscapes, which she builds up by crumpling up small hanji fragments that she finishes on the canvas with acrylic paint.
Young-Ju purposefully omits the presence of humans in place of lights depicted from each building. Collectively, “the lights are representative of the individuals inside and are intended to denote the warmth of people and a sense of shared humanity in a world that is increasingly individualized,” arts writer Aimee Dawson explains.
“While inherently Korean in subject and material, Joung’s work speaks to transnational and transcendent themes. Every major city in the world is home to a ramshackle shanty town—whether it be the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, the gecekondu of Istanbul, or the slums of Detroit—and Joung’s indiscriminate collages of rooftops echo them all.”
Way Back Home will be on view in London until December 20, 2024.
Almine Rech
Broadbent House,
Grosvenor Hill,
London W1K 3JH
