Semi Kwon often marvels at the many obsessions that fuel her creativity, opening up a remarkable lens with which to navigate her life in-between cultures.

After moving to Sri Lanka when young, Semi’s outsider status compelled her to challenge the often maddening concept of perfection. In Spotted (2023), she continues to unravel the mysteries of first impressions, spotlighting moles as distinctive, truthful, and impartial characteristics that immediately attract the often piercing gazes of strangers passing by. Encapsulating the experiences of foreigners far from home, these moles are admired as beautiful imperfections by some, while derided as deviant blemishes and uninvited disturbances by others at the same time.

Like aging skin, the life of a transnational artist is a process of accumulation and overload. For Semi, it has been a life spent searching for authenticity amidst moments of self-constructed solitude. Likewise, the figures that appear in her works are frequently depicted alone, cherishing personal space and blocking out noise in a world that moves ever so swiftly. In a therapeutic sense, Semi employs a sharp palette knife to scrape off layers of paint and provide some breathing room for the hidden textures that lie beneath. Pleasurable, exciting, and revelatory, this creative process reconciles the volatile duality between thought and feeling, helping Semi to remain mentally sharp and emotionally sensitive while en-route to places unknown.

Having made a fresh start in Vienna, Semi now concentrates on the mycelium network, illuminating in her works the essential interconnections between living organisms across and within various ecosystems. In doing so, she hopes to foreground the subtle ways in which all human beings depend upon significant others. Although tarnished in part by social expectations, stereotypes, power geometries, and politics, bonding for Semi remains an integral, albeit contradictory part of survival, growth, and identity formation – wherever she happens to reside.

Spotted I (2023). Oil on Canvas. 120 x 100cm.

Spotted II (2023). Oil on Canvas. 100 x 80cm.

Silverlining (2023). Oil on Canvas. 162 x 140cm.

Icarus (2024). Oil on Canvas. 40 x 40cm.

Discover more of Semi’s works in Issue 5 of our magazine!