Read Hettie Judah’s exhibition text
‘The Dust That We Become’

For NOW Gallery’s 2022 Art Commission Korean artist JeeYoung Lee has created an environment inspired by memories, dreams, emotions, and her personal experience. The artist reinterprets her psychological landscape and thoughts into this environment.

This is a space where JeeYoung reminisces about the past and imagines the future through themes of travel and nature. It is a landscape of her mind which invites audiences to become a part of her world.

JeeYoung hopes that these origami objects, the boat, planes and swans floating in a Gingko leaf sea, will trigger thoughts, memories and give an opportunity for people to harness their own memories and rediscover their own stories. This is not an installation which requires you to understand the artist’s intention, it is a moment to revisit your own experience, find a resonance within the work and relive a moment that was special.

Spend time in the exhibition to contemplate your first memory. Write it down on a piece of origami paper and fold into a swan to add to the collection which will grow during the exhibition. Her everyday objects she hopes will act as a key to hidden memories. 

JeeYoung Lee gained her BFA in visual communication design from Hongik university and MFA in photography from Hongik Graduate University, Seoul, Korea. She has created installations in major institutions all around the world, from San Francisco to Australia via Spain and Singapore. Her collaborations included a diverse range of companies from Samsung to Hermes.

NOW Gallery will donate 10p to the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust for each origami swan folded during the exhibition run.

Learn more about ‘Maiden Voyage’ in our exclusive films by Carlos Jimenez: