Poster image of Hanna Chang Solo Exhibition “New Rock” at Cubic House 4 Gallery, Clayarch Gimhae Museum. (May 4, 2023 - March 31, 2024). Courtesy of the museum.Unfortunately, plastic and Styrofoam are now common sights when strolling along the seashore. Just as rocks erode and become weathered by the impact of waves, the plastic pieces and Styrofoam discarded by humans also take on a rock-like form through weathering processes.
In 2017, while walking along the beach, the artist Hanna Chang discovered debris that had acquired a rock-like appearance due to natural phenomena. Since then, she has amassed more than 2,000 samples from beaches and riverbanks throughout South Korea. The artist refers to these samples as “New Rocks.”
Poster image of Hanna Chang Solo Exhibition “New Rock” at Cubic House 4 Gallery, Clayarch Gimhae Museum, Gimhae, Korea. (May 4, 2023 - March 31, 2024). Courtesy of the museum.If you visit the Dome House at Clayarch Gimhae Museum, you can view over 300 samples of Chang’s “New Rocks,” along with videos capturing the collection process, close-up photographs of the samples, observational drawings, and more.
The “New Rocks” collected from coastlines all over the country, including Jeju Island, the East Sea, the South Sea, and the West Sea of South Korea, are the results of human desires and capitalist society, but at the same time, they serve as a new subject of aesthetic exploration for the artist. The artist documented the degradation of plastic in the natural environment using videos and photographs. Through the paradoxical beauty of “New Rocks,” the artist conveys a message about the awe-inspiring aspects of nature and the climate crisis, emphasizing the importance of practical actions.
The New Rock exhibition, part of the 2023 Ki;um exhibition at Clayarch Gimhae Museum, is taking place in the children’s exhibition space.
