Soo Jin CHUNG’s work transcends simple visual representation to explore the intrinsic power of images. By integrating photography, painting, and multimedia installations, she questions the boundary between reality and imagination, transforming fragmented visuals into immersive experiences.
Her approach is deeply rooted in the study of memory and identity. Inspired by the Kintsugi philosophy, she does not seek to conceal the traces of time but rather to reveal them as elements of newfound beauty. While modern society promotes the idea of “resetting” and erasing past mistakes, she emphasizes acceptance and reinterpretation of wounds.
The Aesthetics of Time and Scars
Today, we often wish to start over after failure, as if the past could be erased. However, Soo Jin CHUNG proposes a different perspective: scars are not marks to be hidden but traces of time that shape identity. Just like Kintsugi highlights the golden cracks in broken pottery, her work transforms wounds into luminous elements.
She experiments with the fusion of art and emotional healing, exploring how images influence our emotions and collective unconscious. Through layers of transparency, light, and material, she creates a space where the visible and the invisible coexist.
Spaces That Exist in Memory, Yet Have Disappeared
As a student living in France, I have moved from one rental apartment to another countless times. With each move, the streets I once knew and the cafés I used to visit have gradually faded from my memory. These were spaces I loved, places that once felt like a part of me, yet now they exist only as blurred fragments in my mind.
These places offered me comfort and held my emotions, yet now, I can no longer even locate them on a map. This work represents an effort to recover these vanishing memories, a healing process of recalling faded emotions. It is not about reconstructing lost spaces but rather reshaping those memories into a new form.
I do not seek to hold onto the past as it was. Instead, I aim to reassemble these memories in a different way, allowing the lost spaces to be reborn with new meaning.
