Ran Hwang: Becoming Again

Third Floor is transformed into a private garden, in a tribute to the infinite cycle of nature. Thousands of elements combine in Korean artist Ran Hwang’s large-scale installation: a flowery landscape reflecting the fragility of life.

Pin by pin, button by button, Korean artist Ran Hwang has drawn — or sculpted — a low relief of cherry blossoms and delicate spider webs. Twenty-one Plexiglass panels present a radiant natural vision formed of countless tiny pins topped with buttons. Five discs depicting phoenixes and peony flowers accompanying the panorama, symbolising grace, strength and renewal. Completing the ensemble, videos projected onto the landscape panels depict flowers blossoming, fading and blossoming again.

This universal installation, dedicated to the cycle of life, invites us to contemplate and reflect on the transient, finite nature of the world around us. The nature of existence itself is an implicit theme, subtly hinted at here and increasingly present in Ran Hwang’s strikingly meditative work.

For Hwang, the slow, repetitive, solitary creation of a work such as this constitutes its own form of introspection: a personal experience to be shared with the public in the form of installations like this one, at Third Floor. Natural light is deliberately excluded, allowing each visitor to immerse themselves completely in the experience of Hwang’s endlessly-renewed virtual garden.