Haru.K

Haru.K seeks to change traditional sansuhwa (paintings of mountains and bodies of water) by substituting the traditional concept of drawing with the modern concept of editing through recording and collection. The results are modern-day sansuhwa pieces that depict, unlike their traditional counterparts, materialistic as well as spiritual ideals. The artist’s recent sansuhwa projects incorporate contemporary sensibilities into a variety of media other than the canvas. Haru.K had twelve solo exhibitions and has participated in multiple group exhibitions in and outside Korea. As a prolific artist, Haru.K won a Shinsegae Art Award in 2013 and has been a resident artist at the Uijae Cultural Foundation and Gwangju Museum of Art Creative Studio.

Edited Scape (The Lunchbox of Mr. H) 1 and 2
Since I was born in 1980, I associate the act of preparing a lunchbox with a curious sense of anticipation. This anticipation comes from my childhood memories of school trips. The feeling of anticipation at spending valuable time with precious ones began to bud with the preparation of the lunchbox the day before the trip, and flowered by the time the lid was put over the box. The meaning of “lunchbox” began to change ever so slightly as the back end of the 1990s came about. It was probably the time when convenience stores truly made their way into the Korean society. Lunchboxes became informal lunches, purchased as a replacement for a meal, rather than something packed with care. In other words, its practical function as a meal began to overshadow its potential as a creator of a fond memory. Fast forward to the year 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and people find themselves isolated behind walls of transparent plastic, burdened with the imperative to remain silent, partaking their food in silence in lieu of meals as a communal exercise. The fear of entering a restaurant has led many people to prepare their own lunchboxes out of their own volition. Even the school trips, once focused on famous sights, are leading people deeper and deeper into isolated parts of the mountain. Edited Scape (The Lunchbox of Mr. H) 1 and 2 are intended to be an exploration of the changing significance of lunchboxes in Korean culture. Starting with Mr. H, a fictional office worker born in 1980 leading an exceedingly normal life, I sought to capture the new reality for Mr. H, as he tries to put a new, everyday life in the nature of the convenience store lunchbox, while shying away from the maddening crowds. Even though we do not know what changes the future holds for us, the lunchboxes of our generation contain memories, convenience, and survival in equal measure.