Haeji Min
The essential element of my artwork is the life and death of humans in mirroring the life cycle of plants. In my artwork, I create virtual plant characters to impose the narrative. The meaning of companionship, sentimentality, and representation of a caretaker is a positive connotation for plant life due to my reminiscent of a simple life in childhood. In contrast, the negative aspect of my plant depiction is the idea rooted in the forest demolition by humans. In attribution to the reminiscence of my childhood living in Canada and New Zealand, plants became my companion when I strolled down the grass track to get to my home. Similarly, nature provides a solace whenever I surround my body with plants in the botanic garden when I get stressed from studying or being homesick. This acts as a bridge for a utopia, where I can escape from real-life struggles and worries.Whereas the story I construct with the negative undertone of nature is the terror behind the dictatorial demolition by humans to natural life since we cannot detect the result of invisible effects and its impact on humans in the future. The plant to human metamorphic look in my painting generates by the plants mutated by nuclear and radiation accidents and incidents in Japan and from the Chernobyl disaster. This grotesque but beautiful description of the virtual characters marks the intensive presence with an undulated to controlled motion. Furthermore, this technical variation coincides with my interweaving theme of the paradoxical nirvana. In detail, you are in the perfect peaceful place such as heaven (nature), yet you are still unhappy. If I cannot find nirvana in my status quo, virtual reality invites me into their world. In other words, when nature undergoes some negative moments due to the cause of human manipulation, I create artwork to make a tribute to nature. The presence of the synthesis of human-nature in my imaginary world, and it signifies compromise, primarily an apologetic gesture of the arbitrary human dominance over nature. Plants transformed into human or vice versa is coming out from compassion; we feel the pain of suffering as much as the plants do. Consequently, my sympathy for the weak causes the opposition to the anthropocentric view on nature. All activities from the most mundane to academic research feed into my artwork. I have accumulated visual memories of travelling around the world, and this becomes a significant advantage of my intuitive flow of artmaking and open-minded vision to see the world and my surroundings. Next, the compilation of watching films (The Fall by Tarsem Singh, The Others by Alejandro Amenábar, and The Invasion by Oliver Hirschbiegel etc), and soaps, creative forms of buildings designed by Zaha Hadid (The Opus) in Dubai, cityscapes, lights, shadow, the tension between confronting a social situation, the muscle structure, and a ballet choreography are some examples of my immediate creative responses. Besides, the anatomic drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci and the medieval art such as The Ghent Altarpiece: The promise of the Annunciation are influential to my painting techniques due to admiring the perfect ratio and beauty. Greek sculpture inspired the depiction of realistic and masculine body parts to expose strong mimesis, meaning the imitation of the world, which maximizes the plausibility of real figures to beholders. In terms of the technicality of my drawing derived from the body horror films by David Lynch impacted the original grotesque images of body/organ integration with objects.
Instagram: @haejiminart
Curriculum Vitae
Education
2017-2020
Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (First Class Honours)
BFA Fine Art
Prizes, scholarships or awards
June 2020
Shortlisted for the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2020 (Top 30)
March 2020
Shortlisted for European Biennial of Contemporary Art (May - June 2020)
January 2020
Shortlisted for The Social Art Award- Can Art Catalyze Change?
July 2019
Winning the Herbert Seaborn Memorial Scholarship Prize
added to the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR)
September 2018
Winning the Jackson Lewis scholarship
The Scholarships are awarded on the recommendation of the appropriate faculty.
July 2018
Rome Art Programme Scholarship, Italy
October 2014
The First Korean University Art Competition Special Prize
Exhibitions
Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2020 Shortlist group exhibition
Ashurst, Fruit & Wool Exchange, 1 Duval Square, London, E1 6PW
29 June - 25 September 2020
Biennale Européenne d’Art Contemporain 2020
Galerie Daniel Vignal,81330 Vabre, France
May - June 2020
Price List
1.
The European Garden
2019
oil colour and oil pastel on canvas
220 x 170 cm
Price on Request
2.
The Pirate Ship
2019
oil colour and oil pastel on canvas
200 x 260cm
Price on Request
3.
My Multiple Egos
2019
oil colour on canvas
250 x 220cm
Price on Request
4.
The Lone Man in the Botanic Garden
2019
ink on canvas
350 x 120cm
Price on Request
5.
The Ominous Lab
2019
oil colour on canvas
160 x 190cm
Price on Request
6.
The Butcher’s Fridge
2020
oil colour on canvas
190 x 160cm
Price on Request
7.
Far From Home
2020
oil colour on canvas
190 x 190cm
Price on Request
8.
The Shadow of Radish Man
2020
oil colour on canvas
290 x 160cm
Price on Request
9.
Four Dancers on the Stage
2019
oil colour on canvas
160 x 190cm
Price on Request
10.
The Mermaid Experiment
2018
gouache on canvas
110 x 340cm
Price on Request
11.
The Suffocation from my Small Dormitory
2018
acrylic and magazine collage on canvas
200 x 400cm
Price on Request
12.
The Mind Operator
2019
pen on paper
29.7 x 42.0cm
Price on Request
For all sales enquiries, please contact the artist directly.
All works are unframed, unless otherwise stated, and prices shown do not include postage and packaging.
NB: The Slade School of Fine Art does not act as an intermediary for sales, nor is it liable for any disputes arising from sales of artworks.