NEWance, Light with Shadow
Seoul Design 2022
DDP, Seoul, South Korea
October 19 - 28, 2022
Like two sides of a coin, light and shadow exist not as mere contrasts but as an essential, interdependent relationship. This exhibition explores the aesthetic born from their coexistence, revealing poetic and dramatic beauty in the tension between opposites. We believe that the expressive depth found in this contrast, this nuance, can enrich both art and design. By interpreting “nuance” as subtle variations in tone, hue, sound, and impression, and combining it with digital fusion thinking, the exhibition seeks to uncover a new sensibility: “NEWance.”
01. Light and Shadow Material Concept Space
Through an in-depth exploration of the interrelationship between light energy and shadow, we conducted a nuanced series of experiments categorized into six key characteristics: Light Transmission / Light Exposure / Light Perception / Depth and Directionality of Light / Light Diffusion / Light Reflection. By extracting and analyzing these experimental relationships, we share aesthetic principles and ideas that can enrich everyday life with sensory depth and visual resonance.
02. Just One Day, Life
This series blends the real and the unreal into a surreal expression, layered with a temporal narrative. By combining tangible objects and spaces with intangible shadow imagery, the work creates subtly surreal scenes using a complex façade technique. Drawing from the everyday interplay between light and shadow through a window, it quietly reflects on the parallel between a single day and the entirety of a human life.
03. Flash Back, Memory
“Memories are remembered differently by each person.”
This work begins with that idea, reflecting on how shared experiences diverge in recollection.Through a rotating interplay of translucent fabrics and shadows, it reveals that even when people seem to miss each other, they are in fact continuously encountering one another. Seated alone, facing the window, the viewer enters a first-person media perspective—only to later discover the layered relationship between the image inside the window (my memory) and the shadow behind it (the other’s memory). Designed as a layered structure of video and physical objects, the piece evokes the quiet complexity of memory and perception.
04. Baptism of Light
This work explores light not only as an element that illuminates space but as space itself. Using PDLC material, it creates a shifting veil of light—a baptism of illumination—that interacts with the architectural form and redefines spatial atmosphere. In this meditative zone of light-mung, evolving light and fluid shadows continuously reshape perception, inviting quiet reflection on the luxury of time and presence. The interplay of material, light, and motion transforms the environment into an ephemeral yet contemplative experience.
05. A Mixture of Light Source To Surface
This work presents space as a living phenomenon. Sculptural planes move with light, reconfiguring space without physical barriers through gradients and blends of varying light sources. The result is a visual experience of space that shifts and breathes, as if alive. Within this structure, the artist poetically expresses the rise and fall of life through formal metaphors of stairs and windows, offering a balanced and nuanced reflection on life’s trajectory.
06. The Light and shadow of human history
This piece draws on the duality of light and shadow—like two sides of a coin—to reflect the emotional contrast within human life. The interplay of brightness and darkness subtly visualizes fragments of joy, sorrow, anger, and pleasure, gradually guiding the viewer toward an inner stillness. Through segmented video imagery of a cow, one of the oldest companions of humankind, the work metaphorically maps each emotional area of the human experience onto specific parts of the animal’s body.
Director's interview
