Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Sofitel Seoul holds Ran Hwang exhibition to celebrate 3rd anniversary
From left, "Healing oblivious aqua" and "The Red Wind" by Ran Hwang / Courtesy of Sofitel
By Lee Hae-rin
Sofitel Ambassador Seoul will celebrate its third anniversary of opening by collaborating with the world-renowned artist Ran Hwang to present four masterpieces under the theme of Cultural Link in the hotel lobby from Sept. 2 to 29.
Hwang's "The Secret Sublime," which will be displayed in the hotel lobby, combines French and local culture through the shape of a vegetable used by a queen of the Joseon Dynasty on a colorful chandelier.
Hwang is a global artist who embodies the human network, visibility and invisibility, and the colorful and beautiful moments of her life with symbolic images.
Based in New York, the Korean artist presented a reinterpretation of the "Lady Dior" and permanently displayed large works at Facebook headquarters in Manhattan, New York.
Her installation work, which uses buttons, yarn and pins as the main materials, combines Korean elements such as plum blossoms, tiles, palaces and palms with cultural objects representing France, such as chandeliers, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, and offers a deep resonance with both sides of life while providing visual pleasure with a bold sense of color.
The exhibition, designed to commemorate the third anniversary of the opening of Sofitel Ambassador Seoul, will provide a broader artistic experience to guests with its carefully selected four pieces from the "Plum Blossom Series," which contains the peak beauty felt in the moment's life.
Also on display will be "The Kiwa Series," which expresses vain human desires and illusions by reinterpreting and distorting images of representative buildings from various cultures, and "The Chandelier Series," which contains the visible light and splendor created by the intertwining of spider webs and chandeliers.
The hotel will host an art talk on Sept. 3 between Hwang and Richard Vine, the former editor-in-chief of the world-renowned art magazine Art in America, at Salon S on the hotel's fifth floor.