k-art in Munich
Erase boundaries with Hyojoo Jang’s wild vines and translucent walls.
Graduating during the global pandemic, Hyojoo Jang was confronted by sudden, mandatory walls, and deep, studio-based isolation. In that cloistered space, she interrogated the origins of boundaries, constantly questioning where the self ends, and where the world begins.
When normality returned, Hyojoo to-and-froed between Munich and the fierce visual dynamism of Seoul, where urban materials quivered, contrasted, and clashed in unison. The more her experiential, tactile practice of refinement and reinterpretation developed, the more she bottled Eastern sensations and cracked them open amidst the stillness of her nature-inspired Bavarian studio.
During a 2025 residency, she spotted a gathering of wild vines while roaming the historic streets of Paris. They claimed territory with tenacity, encroaching so brazenly upon fences, stone walls, and trees that they wiped out structural boundaries entirely. The vine was like a living archive of a human relationship, reinforcing Emanuele Coccia’s assertion that everything in life passes through one another in a constant, cyclical fashion.
Grounded in this truth, Hyojoo creates mediating sculptures that permit the surrounding environment to flow through with ease and grace. To achieve this, she works with materials including acrylic boxes, industrial silicone, and clear PVC film. As shifting light and shadows engage with the surfaces, they reconfigure the transparency in real-time. They awaken the senses, celebrate interdependence, and instill in us the survival instinct and humility to once again let the outside in.
