Cassina Projects is pleased to present Beyond the Birthplace, Haeji Min’s (*1995, Seoul - KR) debut solo show at the gallery. The display of selected recent paintings made between Seoul and London conjures a transient, metamorphic feel to the exhibition which resonates with Min’s autobiographical itinerant journey of living and studying abroad since childhood.
Timeless and elusive, Min's rich paintings dig the juncture of abstraction and figuration, dancing between the all-encompassing hypnotic flow of life cycle and the representational urge of morphing bodies grappling with nature. Notions of expanded consciousness and oneness with the environment are enacted on a vivid backdrop ranging from liquid swerves of blue to dusky variations of indigo, flesh-like pink and tinges of translucent cyber green. Skilfully painted human limbs, body parts and snipped faces crop up as they negotiate their existence in a greater ecosphere where bodily and spiritual realms coalesce into one.
Historical visual influences crisscross - built around the palpable bedrock of Surrealism, George Bataille's symbolism of the eye and the supernatural bend of David Lynch imagery here interweave with the harmonious depiction of human bodies calling to mind the canons of Greek classical sculpture -, this kaleidoscopic use of references underpinning the preponderance of perception and inner brain workings over rationality.
Throughout Min's practice circular time scratches present, past and future. The very idea of an individual self and the concept of a purely human subject are dismissed as conjecture of a bygone rationalistic vision. In its place a plethora of partly human and non-human entities in flux navigate an indeterminate greater latitude finally witnessing the domain of collective alchemy.
Haeji Min (b.1995, Seoul) lives and works between London and Seoul. She is currently enrolled in the 2023 MA Painting at the Royal College of Art in London. Previously she earned a BFA from the Slade School of Art in London with First Class Honours (2017-2020). Min’s work has been the subject of solo and group shows in such places as London, Paris, Berlin, Hong Kong, Seoul, Milan and Dubai. Min attended the Art Institute in Chicago (2018) as Exchange student.
