Illuminate: Soo Hong
Exhibition June 6-27
Opening reception June 6 3-5 pm
Performance with Soundtrack composer s é h e e, June 19th
Think about the brightest thing in your life
This exhibition comprises eight stories contained in two films, still images drawn from the videos, and objects that appear within the narrative. Through these many media, Soo Hong presents the slippery conditions of liquid modernity.
Bright Tongue connects the stories of seven immigrants from diverse backgrounds, including Eritrea, Japan, China, Iran, Argentina, India, and Costa Rica. As all seven participants are residents of Washington state, the project reflects the region’s rich cultural diversity.
Each film began with an open question: “Think about the brightest thing in your life.” Rather than following traditional biographical research, the film captures the participants' psychological worlds through a poetic lens.
Hong’s own journey appears in Illuminate, a surreal film exploring hope and empathy through the medium of light. The film portrays us as dreamers or vagabonds who carry hope, finding ways to create meaning as we adapt to our surroundings.
Hong's work navigates feelings of excitement, loneliness, and longing shaped by a nomadic life. Carrying a sense of being an outsider and dwelling nowhere, she moves between painting, collage, and film, following questions that emerge from small moments, readings, and intuition, working through layered imagery to find answers. Her artwork lives somewhere between memory and imagination, using abstraction as a universal language to communicate intimacy and connection in a way that feels more like a shared dream.
Hong received an MA from Central Saint Martins in London after completing a BA in furniture and product design at Hongik University in Korea.
Read more about Soo in the International Examiner!
Opening reception June 6 3-5 pm
Performance with Soundtrack composer s é h e e, June 19th
images courtesy of Soo Hong and Ryan Warner photography.
