Biography
Jane Hwang is a multimedia artist based in Berlin. She studied at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (B.F.A. in Painting) and the Berlin University of the Arts (M.A. in Art in Context), where she focused on interdisciplinary research bridging theories and media production. Her work revolves around exploring the intersection of oral history, memories, and documentation from a narrative perspective through time-based art. Hwang has presented her work on various platforms,
including Artspace Hyeong, the Museum für Fotografie Berlin, Atelierhaus Salzamt, and
the Icelandic Visual Artists Association.
Artist statement
I explore boundaries. I observe dichotomous worlds prevalent in society and investigate their intersection, which has a unique and distinct character from both worlds. Through my interdisciplinary research into myths, religions, topography, and history, I uncover artifacts of the middle ground from various cultures. I materialize my research through multimedia video installations that feature images, sounds, and voices harvested from the endless circulation of time and space of human history. My work weaves through diverse subjects that examine life and death, time and space, fantasy and reality, nation and territory, and the self and the other. It questions and provokes skepticism about categorizations we have canonized over centuries and invites new discourses on categorical boundaries.
Often, I float on a secluded island in the middle of the deep abyss, stand on it, and look at the land of ‘I’—an accumulation of time. The island, both utopian and dystopian, is riddled with desires and taboos, regardless of society and culture. I would find our island, record it, and collect forgotten pieces of artifacts from the bridle of life somewhere among an infinite repetition of cognition, experience, and memory.
In this era, when people are dragged into the digital world and are demanded to embody their senses into this immaterial realm, my practice focuses on expanding territories of engagement between viewers and artwork. In this context, I analyze the inertia of perceptions and customs in our society, and pursue decolonization through my art. Korean society has developed rapidly with multi-layered narratives such as colonization and liberation, war and division, and dictatorship and democracy. During this reformation, only few traditions were valued and recognized; all others were deemed unimportant and branded public enemies that must be defeated. Through my work, I explore the memories, people, emotions, and values that have been forgotten from this gap in history. I want to fill the gaps in history that are taboo by giving them a narrative. This is to occupy the areas left blank in our memories with stories and reveal the lands of memories from our history to the public.
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