Transparent Membrane of Preservation

This work begins from researching different preservation practices and how seasonal knowledge is lived through the body. Native plants and fruits are layered within terrines and vessels, while seaweed gathered through the labour of Korean haenyeo is transformed through drying and boiling into agar, then into layered structures. Time settles across these processes like a translucent membrane. For the artist, these materials hold translucency, dissolution, and traces of time. The work is composed through physical labour—gathering, boiling, and layering. Preservation here is not a technique, but a question of how land, knowledge, and labour continue through the hand. The installation is shared and eaten during the opening, where preservation briefly becomes embodied memory.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Haeminhae works at the threshold of disappearance and regeneration. Through sculpture, food, and ephemeral materials, she traces how matter, memory, and sensation persist as they fade. Using things destined to vanish, she records the residues they leave behind and explores cycles of decay, consumption, and renewal, often by eating the work itself. She previously ran UNDUCK, a sandwich-based project of edible hills, and continues toward the next hill.

Artist website

Image: Haeminhae, Oven and Hill, 2022, agar agar, black thread, lotus root peel, rotten lemon, dimensions variable, image courtesy of the artist.