Place Not Found

Chinwook Kim, Inside and outside-black mirror, 2012

Hackney Wick’s industrial past remains a constant backdrop to its creative present. With Olympic developments subjecting the landscape to further change, the identity of the area continues to adjust and refocus.

But what if this shift is so large that the identity is completely reconfigured? How can one seek identity in an unfamiliar landscape? Place Not Found at Forman’s Gallery seeks to explore such questions, charting shifting identity, the search for belonging and the idea of dislocation, through the work of fifteen contemporary Korean artists.

“Many of the artists had never been to London before,’ explains Eunjung Shin, the exhibition’s curator. “I’ve always been struck by the strong sense of identity in Hackney Wick and this exhibition expresses an outsider’s reaction to it rather than a local view.

“Leaving South Korea has forced many of the artists to re-examine their worldview and cultural ideals — things which are all wrapped up with identity. Sejin Moon, for example, never realised that she could not fully explore ideas of sex and gender in a public sphere while she was in Korea. It was not until she came to London that she realised what her limitations had been at home.”

Shin’s Neutral Territory explores women in their working environments and is a product of the new cultural landscape Moon discovered in London. Beomsik Won’s work also shows his reaction to a new environment. Fascinated by London’s buildings, he has stitched together different pieces of architecture, detached and lost from their original context and given new identity and form.

“Forman’s itself has been forced to relocate because of the Olympics,” Eunjung adds, “so this is an interesting setting for the exhibition.”

Despite such an obvious reminder of recent change, Eunjung still believes there will be a place for artists in Hackney Wick post-games.

“Things will undeniably be affected at the production end,” she says, “but new visitors to the area mean that there is more potential for selling and exhibiting.”

In a period of flux, this exhibition provides a space to examine identity and explores the place it finds itself in; asking and answering some important questions during an interesting era for Hackney Wick.

Place Not Found
10 May – 3 June
Smokehouse Gallery
Stour Road, Fish Island
E3 2NT
Thursday – Friday, 5 – 9pm
Saturday – Sunday, noon – 5pm
Entrance free