DEAR CABINET: Deokhan Kim, Nanan Kang, Jieun Park, Simon Ko, Mingyu Song, Bongchull Shin, Dabin Ahn, Miju Lee, Byungho Lee, Sisan Lee, JEJn, Ahyun Jeon, Minhye Choi, Jungwon Phee, Seongjoon Hong

SEOJUNG ART presents DEAR CABINET from November 24 to December 29, 2023, with a total of 15 artists, including Deokhan Kim, Nanan Kang, Jieun Park, Simon Ko, Mingyu Song, Bongchull Shin, Dabin Ahn, Miju Lee, Byungho Lee, Sisan Lee, JEJn, Ahyun Jeon, Minhye Choi, Jungwon Phee, and Seongjoon Hong. The show reimagines the exhibition space as a large cabinet, where artists contribute their most valued possessions.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, individuals at the dawn of a new era of civilization gathered unique objects for their collections, enjoying the world they discovered and cultivating their tastes and identities. In Germany, such collections were known as ‘Wunderkammer’, or 'Repositories of wonders,' while in England and France, they were called ‘Cabinets of Curiosities’. These spaces transcended their original purpose of mere display; they became dynamic arenas for intellectual engagement with art and humanity, setting the foundational ethos for the modern art galleries and museums we know today.

This exhibition is rooted in the concept that a cabinet, as the forerunner to the museum, was a microcosm that satisfied intellectual curiosity and artistic enjoyment. It all begins with artists filling their own 'cabinets of curiosities.' The layout of the exhibition is divided into two principal routes.

First, one will discover the works of 15 artists dispersed throughout the exhibition space, each accompanied by individual cabinets that seem to conceal secretive stories. These small cabinets hold personal narratives reflecting the artists' philosophies toward their work, with contemplations on ideas they hold dear, like ephemerality, materiality, and existence—these reflections breathe life into their creations and become one with them.

The second route leads to a large space by the entrance, featuring a three-sided, C-shaped cabinet. Whereas the individual cabinets capture a still moment of personal reflection, this larger space encompasses the extensive hours and rigorous processes that foster such reflection. The process gradually disperses into oblivion, leaving only remnants behind. It is when these fragments are discarded that the artwork truly comes to be. This cabinet space encapsulates the cycle of artistic imagination, the act of creation, and the return to the beginning, filling the void between absence and presence.

At times, the things we hold dear are ambiguous and transient, disarming us and compelling us to re-engage with them in perpetually evolving ways. This exhibition focuses on the preciousness of this very process. It is an occasion to reexamine the intimate journey a piece of artwork undergoes before it is displayed in someone's cabinet, and the secrets it holds. We hope that the beholders capture the most precious and honest worlds, as reconstructed in the unique languages of the 15 artists.