Namhee Kwon
& DYKWON

About the work

A single plastic bag fills the screen. It swells and empties with a slow, guided breath, and when it is full, it is empty. As the breath leaves and the plastic settles, one line rises from the floor beneath it — a title or a word from twenty years of Namhee Kwon's visual poetry. As it fills again, the words blur and drift out of reach.

“The breath between words, the spaces between things, and the suspension of sound.” Kwon works between literature and visual art: one image and one narrative title as the smallest possible situation. In 2007 she placed Empty winds, empty sky, empty words, and empty waters… along the Hongjecheon stream in Seoul as traffic signs; in 2020 words floated over A pine forest. Soom Bong Ji carries them into one breath. No account. Nothing leaves your phone.

Selected exhibitions

Artists

Namhee Kwon (b. 1971, Gangneung). MA Goldsmiths College, University of London; MFA Hongik University. Her work has been shown in Seoul, London, Paris, Munich, Brussels, Kyoto and Abu Dhabi.

Doo Young Kwon (DYKWON) — artist, tool builder, researcher, educator. PhD ETH Zurich (blue-c immersive telepresence), MS University of Washington. Professor at Seoul Media Institute of Technology. Built Kwon's 3D VR exhibition (2020) and the Sunshine and Flower — Heo Nanseolheon metaverse (2022). dykwon.com

Editions

Give a breath