Installation view ©Hannah Woo

Art Space Boan 2 is hosting Hannah Woo’s solo exhibition, 《Tumbleweeds》, through March 4.

Curated by Jang Hyejeong, 《Tumbleweeds》 invites us to stand here together. Like water and wind that allow dried grass, rootless, to cross cities and borders and take root again, this exhibition hopes for the moment when flexible and light beings—those that can become anything and go anywhere, rather than clinging to tangible solidity—finally appear, stirring a whirl. In that moment, we become witnesses to one another.

Hannah Woo creates fabric sculptures inspired by the forms of human and animal organs and body parts. Among her works, the ‘Abdomen’ series begins with the artist’s recognition of the “absence” of her own organ—a realization that sparked feelings of deficiency and loss.

Sculptures that inherit the forms of organs serve as substitutes for absent entities. At the same time, they supplement loss and satisfy desires for possession. This longing and possessiveness lead one to obsess over things one does not have or cannot possess, ultimately expanding into an understanding that these things are not something absent from oneself but simply different from oneself.

Through the subsequent ‘Bag with You’ series, Woo’s work evolves beyond human organs to include gills, swim bladders, and tails—organs humans do not have. These sculptures, worn and carried, fuel an imagination of beings that can transcend the fixed body and identity of the present. By borrowing the organs of other creatures, Woo seeks to transcend the finite human body and escape the fixed concept of the human form. Her work challenges the binary boundaries that have traditionally separated humans from all others, striving instead to foster horizontal relationships with other beings.

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