Arario Gallery Seoul is pleased to present Polar Heir, new video and photography works by Han Sungpil, from January 8 to February 22, 2015. Polar Heir is the first presentation of Han Sungpil’s work after his sole exhibition at Arario Gallery Cheongdam in 2013. The new works in the exhibition deal with the polar regions. In his previous Façade Project, Han has explored fundamental questions and forms of photography such as the issues of the original and the copy, reality and fiction, and conceptual interpretation of space. Photography, video, and installation have all been employed in such creative production. 

For two years since 2013, the artist has been working on the Arctic and Antarctic project, discovering the sublime beauty of the nature embedded in the layers of time as well as the gap hidden behind such aesthetic. The title of the exhibition Polar Heir bears multiple connotations. In the Korean pronunciation of the word “polar(地極)” in Chinese characters, it means the Arctic and Antarctic. Yet, it also means the longest distance between the ends of two hands (指極) and to hold a spear (持戟). A spear is an ambivalent object that has both the qualities of attack and defence. If the geological ends of the Arctic and Antarctic have been attacked by our spears to be exploited, they now became spears for reflecting on the humanity’s future. In addition, the temporality and obligation embedded in the polar regions tell that the humanity is the “heir” of such sublime time and place.

In his approach towards the polar regions, Han Sungpil breaks away from the stereotypical conception of the regions, such as places of extreme coldness and tough terrain, turmoil and hardship, or mystic places where animals such as polar bears, sea lions, and penguins inhabit. The artist finds the sense of the sublime about the Arctic and Antarctic from the layers of time. Through his new works, Han

reconceptualizes the Arctic and Antarctic as spaces that had time and history, which the audience will encounter as an accumulation of time presented in the artist’s work.

Han also conveys traces of historical memory and reality, hidden behind the sublime of the nature, through documentary photography and video. The artist conveys the memories of whaling, mining, and polar conquests, which were done for the sake of economic and industrial benefit, in a rather calm and placid manner. The efforts made in the past is contrasted with the current ecological and environmental

problems, providing a ground for realising the history behind the sublime of the nature. Moreover, the representation of traces in the polar regions through the media of video and photography is to inherit such traces in eternity.

In Polar Heir, Han presents large-format photography works depicting the sublimity of the natureof polar regions seen through noble ideals and layers of time, which are exhibited in the basement floorand on the first floor of the gallery. On the second floor, the artist introduces 17 documentary photographs that depict the gap between historical memories and reality, along with a new work that

employs a photo-mapping technique, a technique that is presented for the first time in Korea.

With the opening of Polar Heir, an artist talk is scheduled to take place on January 10, 4 p.m. atArario Gallery Seoul. A book of documentary photography about the mining and whaling industries of polar regions is scheduled to be published with the opening of the exhibition. The publication includes a foreword by Chin Jungkwon, a renowned professor and critic, and an essay by an artist Choi Yeseon.

Later in 2015, Han Sungpil will present a large-scale installation work at Between the Idea and the Experience, the main exhibition of the Havana Biennale, along with Anish Kapoor, Daniel Buren, and TinoSeghal, among others.