One of Korea's foremost contemporary artists, Kyungah Ham will participate in the Asia Society Triennial (hereafter the Triennial). The inaugural edition of the Triennial, which brings together around forty artists, scientists, historians, policy analysts, and thought leaders from twenty-one countries, is the first to focus exclusively on works by contemporary Asian artists within the United States, aiming to promote greater interest and understanding of both Asian and Asian American identity within the larger American society. Organized around multiple venues across New York City with the primary exhibition located at the Asia Society Museum, Part I of the Triennial will remain open from October 27, 2020, through February 7, 2021, while Part II will take place from March 16 through June 27, 2021. 

Kyungah Ham will present seven works produced from 2016 to 2019, installed within Asia Society Museum, that come from her iconic embroidery series What you see is the unseen / Chandeliers for Five Cities. Based as much on her personal experiences as on acute observations of sociopolitical phenomena, Ham’s work explores how the mechanisms of power impact even the most minute aspects of our contemporary society, using various media including photography, installation, performance, and video. Ongoing since 2008, Ham has used embroidery as the basis for a multilayered work that entails a complex process including collaboration with anonymous people located in North Korea.

Widely known for its clandestine production process, the impetus behind Ham’s embroidery series came from a chance encounter on the street of her neighborhood with a propaganda flyer from North Korea. The small incident triggered Ham to think about unorthodox means of communicating with the people in North Korea—one of the most hermetic countries in the world—by using art as a medium. Ham began to collect news and images circulating on the internet and digitally processed them to render abstract, and often colorful, blueprints to be sent to North Korean embroidery artisans via middlemen. The fragments of digital information would be transferred to a medium most antithetical to their origin—the information byte by byte would be translated into stitch by stitch handwoven embroidery, the epitome of an analog, labor-intensive medium. A long-term project, shifts in world politics constantly impacted the process, often exposing these works to confiscation and demands for bribery, and at times resulting in the disappearance of the middleman. The dangers embedded in the process illustrate the reality that the two Koreas are facing—where physical travel is barred and ideological conflicts persist—and locates it within the bigger scheme of world history. Works from Ham’s series What you see is the unseen / Chandeliers for Five Cities are the results of a similar cross-border process. Instead of abstract imagery, however, this series depicts massive, ornate chandeliers on a dark background. Each chandelier atmospherically recalls grand architectural spaces, such as a palace or ceremonial center, and symbolically evokes Western hegemony and the desires, ideologies, and grand narratives that underlie them.

The Triennial, which holds a curatorial emphasis on highlighting the “power of art to resist our urge to silo during these uncertain times … [and to] suggest the possibility of the efficacy of micro-actions and human agency, of particular resonance now when governments and public institutions seem to fail us,” is anticipated to deliver a sense of much-needed solidarity to residents in the city via a wide range of art that employs diverse formats. 

About the Artist
Born in 1966 in Seoul, South Korea, Kyungah Ham currently lives and works in Seoul. She received her BFA in painting from Seoul National University, Seoul and MFA from School of Visual Arts, New York. Ham has held solo exhibitions at prominent institutions and galleries, including Artsonje Center, Seoul (2009); Kukje Gallery, Seoul (2015); Carlier Gebauer Gallery, Berlin (2017); Pace Gallery, Hong Kong (2018); and Carlier Gebauer Gallery, Madrid (2019). Her works have been featured in group exhibitions at numerous institutions worldwide, such as Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul (1989, 1999, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019); British Museum, London (2005); Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2010); Singapore Art Museum, Singapore (2011); Kunstmuseum, Bonn (2013); Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2013); Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2014); MKG Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (2018); Artspace, Sydney (2019); and Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong (2020). Ham has also participated in major international exhibitions including the 1st Yokohama Triennial (2001); the 4th Gwangju Biennial (2002); Prague Biennale 4 (2009); The 7th Tournai International Triennial (2011); the 4th Guangzhou Triennial (2012); the 7th Liverpool Biennial (2012), and the 10th Taipei Biennial (2016). Ham was the finalist for the 2016 Korea Artist Prize organized by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea and participated in the corresponding exhibition, 2016 Korea Artist Prize. Ham’s works can be found in the collections of Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan; the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; Seoul Museum of Art; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and Uli Sigg Collection, Switzerland.

About Asia Society Museum
Asia Society Museum presents a wide range of traditional, modern, and contemporary exhibitions of Asian and Asian American art, taking new approaches to familiar masterpieces and introducing under-recognized arts and artists. The Asia Society Museum Collection comprises a traditional art collection, including the initial bequests of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, and a contemporary art collection. Through exhibitions and public programs, Asia Society provides a forum for the issues and viewpoints reflected in both traditional and contemporary Asian art and in Asia today.

Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational institution based in New York with state-of-the-art cultural centers and gallery spaces in Hong Kong and Houston, and offices in Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Tokyo, Washington, D.C., and Zurich.