Hyunseon Kang often appears in her work, recently portraying herself as a digital avatar named “Lucy.” The avatar Lucy is the artist’s alter ego, a self-referential image that she employs and activates so as to navigate the possibility of multiple subjectivities within a given environment, virtual or real. Although the avatar imitates the form of the artist, it is an anonymous being. Rather than a search for narcissistic self-exploration, it is a medium that leads us to look at the diverse self-images which change according to the gaze of others in multiple times and spaces. The being functioned as a metaphor in a complex world also makes us consider the desire of the viewer’s gaze on the object and the ways of meditating with it and investigates the origin of the self’s authenticity, identity, subjectivity, and self-consciousness.
Continuing her examination of multiple self-images and identities by positioning the artist’s medium in various time-spatial contexts, Post-Me, Kang’s first solo exhibition in five years since 2017, embraces the questions about the institutions surrounding us and how they are institutionalized within historical, social, political, and economic contexts. The exhibition title, which borrows from the suggestion by AI (Artificial Intelligence) based on keywords related to her practice and new works, signifies Kang’s extended artistic practice of exploring the ways to transcend “me” and what comes after or beyond “me,” as the prefix “post” implies.

About the Artist

Hyunseon Kang (b.1978) is a media artist based in Seoul. Kang examines the possibility of multi-subjectivities by staging the digital avatar named Lucy as her medium in the specific time-spatial contexts, created by digital media such as video, live simulation, and VR. The artist investigates what is inherent in the viewer’s perspective, how it is constituted, and how multi-spatiality affects individuals, communities, and institutions. Kang graduated from Seoul National University with BFA in Fine Art and achieved her MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martin, University of the Arts London, MA in Sonic Arts with Merits from Middlesex University London, and Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Seoul National University. Her work has been presented in many institutions and shows including the Gwangju Design Biennale, Ilmin Museum of Art, and Wooyang Museum of Art.