Billytown will host The Sea We Want to See Part 2 from 1 November to 21 December. The exhibition is a follow-up to Part 1, which opened in Seoul in June 2024. It features 11 works by Eunsae Lee, Hyeree Ro and Jiyoung Yoon, who are prominent Korean artists.
The theme of the exhibition is ‘water’, which connects the two cities of Seoul and The Hague. The Hague is a major Netherlands coastal city, where water is an element of everyday life and the fear of flooding. It is the sea as a landscape and a means of movement and transport. In Seoul, water has recently become a threatening substance due to climate change, which is changing much faster than people can cope with. The three artists in the exhibition reinterpret the context of water and the sea in these two cities through their work.
Eunsae Lee’s paintings are inspired by images of signage she saw in the Netherlands, her personal feelings after moving to the Netherlands, and inverted landscapes and scenes reflected in water. Especially the large mural painting outside the Billytown Gallery window, which is exclusive to this exhibition.
Hyeree Ro’s work is in the form of two-person kayaks to evoke memories of her father and her experiences at sea. She uses the metaphor of the vessel and the sea as symbols of both comfort and death in her work. Her interpretation of her family and generation draws many connections on a personal level to an extended dimension.
Jiyoung Yoon’s sculpture contains emotions such as the inner pain that she has to endure as an artist and the relief that she receives at the same time. Her net, made in the form of intestines, is a cozy hammock that can be relaxed after hardship. In a historical context, they are a reminder of the efficient transport of humans by ship at sea.
Meanwhile, the three artists have in common the sense that their bodies have been moved to Amsterdam, Berlin, and New York. This is Billytown’s first group exhibition of Korean women artists, and we invite you to experience the fluidity, tender possibilities, and strength of water as Eunsae Lee, Hyeree Ro, and Jiyoung Yoon explore their work.
-Heeseung Choi (Guest Curator at Billytown)
