Semin Hong

Semin Hong is a South Korean artist (1995, Pennsylvania) who lives and works in London, UK. She studied MA Fine Art at UAL Chelsea College of Arts in London and BFA Painting at Hongik University in Seoul. She was previously an artist in residence at Sarabande Foundation (est. Lee Alexander McQueen) and now is in The Bomb Factory Art Foundation.

 

Semin’s work starts from the belief that every space anyone has ever lived in, whether it’s called home, shelter, or without a name, is inscribed with memory and always left with indecipherable traces and marks.

 

Through mixed media installation, she explores relationships between people and home, especially in the context of migration. In her work, the elements of home -whether they are architectural fragments or gestures extracted from ritualistic actions taking place in domestic space- are isolated and inserted into the new context. By building a temporary shelter in a gallery and using repeated motifs from her childhood memory, she attempts to navigate immigrant identity and belongingness entwined with the concept of home.

 

Her choice of materials used in the installations relies mostly on portability. She works predominantly with foldable fabrics that could fit in luggages as all her works are meant to be carried around with her through her personal migration. Objects and videos used in installations function as lexicons indicating personal imageries from her nostalgic memory of first home.