Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

Cha has held solo exhibitions including 《PET》 (Space Cadalogs, Seoul, 2022), 《The Floor is Lava》 (SOSHO, Seoul, 2019), and 《Ancient Soul++》 (Taste House, Seoul, 2018).

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

Cha has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including 《UNBOXING PROJECT 3.2: Maquette》 (Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, 2024), 《UNBOXING PROJECT 3: Maquette》 (New Spring Project, Seoul, 2024), 《Perigee Winter Show》 (Perigee Gallery, Seoul, 2022), 《Kak》 (HITE Collection, Seoul, 2022), 《Minimalism-Maximalism-Mechanissmmm Act 3 – Act 4》 (Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2022), and 《Latency: Streamlined Times》 (Platform-L Contemporary Art Center, Seoul, 2019).

Originality & Identity

Sla Cha’s practice begins with observing the systems and images that operate within the virtual world of games. Rather than focusing on narrative, she pays attention to functional elements and visual structures such as the form of items, inventory systems, maps, pets, and magical devices, translating these into physical sculpture. This interest is clearly demonstrated in her solo exhibition 《Ancient Soul++》(Taste House, 2018), where she adopted the format of an inventory window to arrange 84 object-based sculptures. Here, individual works do not function as complete, autonomous sculptures, but rather as components within a system that generate meaning through their relationships with one another.
 
The artist extends this method of collecting and arranging into a broader mode of thinking that runs throughout her practice. As noted in her master’s thesis, the processes of producing, exhibiting, and storing artworks are perceived as analogous to selecting, collecting, and organizing items within a game inventory. While these selections may appear accidental, they can be understood as manifestations of unconscious preference. The accumulation of such selections forms not only the meaning of individual works, but also an overarching “context” and “atmosphere” across her practice—one that remains fluid and relational rather than fixed.
 
In her later works, this conceptual framework expands toward questions of belief and desire. In Double Luck(2024), the work begins from the idea that certain objects provide psychological comfort simply through their presence, treating repetitive acts of collecting and recording as a form of superstitious practice. Here, the artist materializes wishes and prayers, shaping the very sensation that something “might come true” into sculptural form.
 
Similarly, in Threading Beads 珠 [zhū] – Pink(2024), the repeated act of handling prayer beads is evoked, revealing layers of repetition, ritual, and accumulated desire. In this way, Cha’s work, which originates in the systems of games, gradually expands toward more internal dimensions—such as belief, hope, and repetitive action—ultimately addressing immaterial sensations through material form.

Style & Contents

Sla Cha develops her work through the process of translating virtual images from the screen into physical material. She observes game interfaces and captures them through screenshots, then sketches these references and realizes them as sculptures through experiments with materials such as plaster, urethane, clay, and sponge. What matters in this process is not faithful reproduction, but rather the generation of new forms through the physical properties and sensory qualities of materials.
 
In her first solo exhibition 《Ancient Soul++》(Taste House, 2018), she categorized and displayed objects into groups such as animal hides, eggs, stones, gemstones, and food, allowing sculpture to be read not as individual objects but within a system of classification and arrangement. This approach expands the exhibition into an installation structure, encouraging viewers to experience the entire space as a kind of interface.
 
In her second solo exhibition 《The Floor is Lava》(SOSHO, 2019), she directly applies the structure of a game map to the exhibition space. By laying carpets in different colors, she distinguishes between areas that can and cannot be stepped on, thereby restricting the viewer’s movement. This overlaps the movement logic of a game character with the experience of viewing an exhibition, transforming the space itself into a rule-based system.
 
Another key element in Cha’s practice is tactility. She encourages viewers to touch and lift her works, allowing them to perceive not only visual form but also weight and materiality. Large-scale objects made from lightweight materials, as well as works presented as “companion sculptures” in 《PET》(Space Cadalogs, 2022), evoke emotional engagement through tactile experience.
 
More recently, her work has expanded into forms that combine function and symbolism—such as the altar-like structure of QUAD ALTAR(2022), or bead-like works that foreground repetitive actions. In this way, Cha’s formal language moves fluidly between sculpture, installation, interface, and device, increasingly incorporating the viewer’s bodily experience.

Topography & Continuity

Sla Cha’s practice occupies a distinctive position in that it combines the logic of games with physical material, expanding sculpture into a “functioning system.” While many contemporary artists focus on digital imagery or virtual environments, she translates these into tangible forms that can be directly touched, foregrounding tactile experience.
 
Her work places emphasis not on the completeness of individual objects, but on the network of relationships formed through collection, arrangement, repetition, and variation. This connects to structural modes of thinking such as inventories, lists, and collections, opening her works to continuous reconfiguration rather than fixed meaning. This characteristic runs consistently from the classificatory system seen in 《Ancient Soul++》 to the accumulative structures presented in group exhibitions such as 《UNBOXING PROJECT》(Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, 2024; New Spring Project, Seoul, 2024).
 
In her recent works, the concepts of “wish” and “prayer” introduce an emotional layer into this structural framework. Repetitive actions and collection shift from being mere systems to mechanisms through which human desire and belief are projected, expanding her practice toward a more internal dimension. This also resonates with the transformation of game items from functional tools into carriers of personal meaning.
 
Going forward, her work is likely to continue navigating the tension between materiality and immateriality, while simultaneously engaging sensory experience and psychological processes. By addressing intangible sensations—such as belief, expectation, and illusion—through sculpture, her practice moves beyond simply representing the boundary between the virtual and the real, toward articulating the emotions and experiences that emerge in between.