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Aaina Bhargava

“Operating at the intersection of art and technology” is a near-ubiquitous phrase, often trotted out to define the work of digital artists. Ambiguous and overused, yes, but it’s also where South Korean media artist Inhwa Yeom draws the most freedom.
“I don’t think you should have to choose between learning one or the other,” says Yeom. “They’re both just forms of expression.”
For Yeom, “new” and “old” are equally fraught. “I don’t even like to call myself a ‘new’ media artist,” she says. “I don’t think there should be a dichotomy between old or new media – technology changes every day.”
In addition to her art practice, Yeom is a researcher and the founder of BiOVE, a biotech and bioart start-up, where she aims to increase accessibility in medical, rehabilitative, therapeutic and creative-learning experiences through extended reality, or XR, and artificial intelligence-powered interactive systems.

Yeom is in Hong Kong for “Future Tense”, an exhibition that opened at the Hong Kong Arts Centre on March 1. The show explores lesser-known stories of Hong Kong’s cultural heritage reimagined in the future, with the added effects of social shifts, climate change and urban development.
“The genesis of this project came from how we make up or adapt these stories based on our memories,” says exhibition director Ray LC. “The exhibition is not about technology. It’s about the nature of how we preserve cultural heritage and stories. We use technology to express how we reimagine the future, as you’ll see in Inhwa’s work – she uses imagery to speculate.”
Here Yeom talks about navigating the space between art and tech, Al (good and bad) and why the audience is the real protagonist in her work.
What inspired you to work with technology in your artistic practice?

My interest in technology came from trying to under­stand (South Korean artist) Nam June Paik’s work better. I was doing my master’s in art history and writing my thesis about Paik. As an artist, he was a pioneer. He predicted the impact of technology in the future, describing it as a constant flux and stream of ideas, information and imagery, and defining the internet before it existed. I felt I needed to learn the fundamentals of technology to fully comprehend what Paik did.
I did a government-funded vocational education programme in computer programming. After that, I started my master’s in culture technology at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), with a focus on AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality).
How do you balance science/tech and art in your practice?

I’ve always had an identity crisis, stemming from an inner conflict about whether I should pursue art and tech. The South Korean government always promoted hybridity between the two fields, but in reality it doesn’t translate. While I was studying tech, I wasn’t encouraged to pursue art. Being interdisciplinary wasn’t encouraged.
After KAIST, I did a PhD in bioengineering and was a clinical researcher at Seoul National University Hospital. I was studying AR and VR technology for surgeons, specifically in devices they use in surgeries, and also for general medical purposes. This was for a PhD programme that I dropped out of halfway through because there was no room to experiment or have freedom in my work. I felt this sense of confinement. But, overall, technology is a tool for me to realise my vision. I see AI as material, and myself as a full-time artist.
When and why did you start using AI?
In 2022, when ChatGPT-3 came out. People were making a fuss about it in the tech world, so I felt compelled to experiment with it. There’s Midjourney as well, which has actually significantly improved my imagery.
How do you use it in your work?

I primarily use it for image and video generation. It’s a tool. It’s important to know what to input to achieve exactly what you want. That’s still an experiment. Sometimes it’s problematic. For example, if your input is “Asian”, you get young, K-popified female faces, which is not at all what I intended. It’s also reflective of the model’s (and world’s) programming at large.
What concerns you most about AI?

I’m a user of generative AI and what really concerns me is that the products are getting more expensive. As a user, you don’t have any power to engage with the development of that technology, you just consume. There’s a capitalist hierarchy that affects how you build your own visual language.
Which XR and art practitioners inspire you?
Lauren Lee McCarthy – she’s a professor at UCLA (the University of California, Los Angeles) and she created the p5.js computing language. Qianqian Ye – she’s a media artist as well. Ayoung Kim, too. I admire the meticulousness in her production. All of them are heavily research-based and are really good about archiving and documenting their process, which allows you to think more deeply about your own work. Lauren and Qianqian are my mentors. Their work is quite radical and political.
How does your work in “Future Tense”, Becoming Human-Fish, reflect on Hong Kong’s cultural heritage?

It’s a speculative video work using generative AI, inspired by the idea of saunas, spas and hot springs. The piece stems from another in the same series, Sauna Lab (2024), which is set in Daejeon, known as the “Silicon Valley of South Korea”. It’s also known for having a culture of going to hot springs, many of which are disappearing because of urban redevelopment.
The second work in the series, Flowers of Hot Spring (2024), addresses similar themes and is set in Hualien, Taiwan, which also has a hot-spring culture. It’s a place where a lot of indigenous knowledge and experiences exist. This third work, Becoming Human-Fish (2025), is set in Hong Kong and explores ideas of local myths and mythologies using the creature Lo Ting (frequently depicted in local literature and art), who is half-man and half-fish. I read a Korean news article that referred to microplastics in the ocean as tears of merpeople. The piece was based on 150 tons of plastic debris that washed up on Hong Kong beaches after Typhoon Vicente (in 2012). Maybe merpeople could be a good metaphor for addressing climate change in Hong Kong. I always adapt the works to the local context they’re exhibited in.
Your installations engage with bio-colonial narratives. What type of colonial narratives are you looking at and why?

We’re now in a postcolonial world, but there are still various forms of colonisation. I’m interested in those that occur for scientific, biological purposes but have cultural impacts. For example, the phenomenon in South Korea where they “import” women from other East Asian countries, or even Russia, to live here and give birth, as the birth rate in the country is declining, things like that – modern versions of colonisation. At a broader level, I want to include diverse perspectives and identities in the technological landscape. I want to make a stage for people to empower their own identities.
You explore performativity and inter-performativity where interaction unfolds between participants and the environment. Why is this important?
The audience is the protagonist of the work. Their feeling and expression is what matters the most. The phrase also refers to the performativity of the system I created. It addresses how human performance, actions and interactions these days are technological performances.
In art, performance means an enactment of expression, whereas in the tech world, it’s about how well something functions. I like the multiplicity of meanings the word has.
What is the “3D performative apparatus-environment” you create?

I use 3D interactive technologies together, which I’ve termed a “digital apparatus”. Then I combine those with non-digital apparatuses, like furniture, to create installations or sets that function like a stage to experience this performativity.
What do you hope your audience takes away from seeing your work?

My ultimate goal is that they feel empowered about who they are. When I was little I used to perform on stage, then as I got older and became aware of the audience’s gaze, I started getting stage fright. This is one of the reasons I create stages in my work.
In Korea there is a term for people with lots of confidence who go on stage without any problem – “stage-material”. I want the audience to feel like they’re stage-material.
Inhwa Yeom’s work is part of the “Future Tense” exhibition at Pao Galleries, 4/F, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai, until March 15. For more information visit the Hong Kong Arts Centre.


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This artist puts audiences at the centre of her digital creations

Inhwa Yeom uses XR and AI to create artworks offering social commentary; catch her at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s “Future Tense” exhibition. Photo: courtesy Inhwa Yeom

“Future Tense”, an exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, explores lesser-known stories of the city’s cultural heritage, reimagined in the future. Photo: Handout

Solarsonic Band (2024), a 3D performative apparatus-environment by Inhwa Yeom. Photo: Inhwa Yeom/Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture & Seoul City

Innerveauty Spa (2023), another of Inhwa Yeom’s 3D performative apparatus-environments. Photo: Inhwa Yeom/Korea National Asian Culture Centre

A piece from the artist’s Sauna Lab (2024) series. Photo: Inhwa Yeom/Daejeon Museum of Art, Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab

An installation at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s “Future Tense” exhibition. Photo: Handout

Becoming Human-Fish, an artwork from the “Future Tense” exhibition. Photo: Inhwa Yeom/Daejeon Museum of Art, Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab

Installation view at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s “Future Tense” exhibition. Photo: Handout

Diva Spectra (2024), a 3D performative apparatus-environment by Inhwa Yeom. Photo: Inhwa Yeom/LG Arts Centre, LG Electronics

Visitors view an installation at the “Future Tense” exhibition. Photo: Handout

4 exhibitions to get you psyched for March’s art happenings

Michele Fletcher in the studio. Photo: courtesy White Cube 

Chan Ka Kiu, After (2023). Photo: Chan Ka Kiu, courtesy De Sarthe Hong Kong 

Installation view of Michele Fletcher’s “Aftertime”. Photo: White Cube

Halley Cheng, Kapok series (2020-25). Photo: Ora-Ora

Installation view of “The Point Becomes a Circle, and Time Turns into a Ball in a Curved Space”. Photo: courtesy Erbossyn Meldibekov and Rossi & Rossi

How do Syria’s Islamists view culture? Unlike Taliban, they see art as ‘part of humanity’

Syrian artist Sara Shamma at her retrospective exhibition at the Damascus National Museum in Syria. Photo: Reuters

Dance students perform during rehearsals at the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus, Syria, which closed for a while after ex-jihadists seized power but has since reopened. Photo: Reuters

People attend a concert in the courtyard of a restaurant in the Old City of Damascus, Syria, in January 2025 after Islamists toppled the secular regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Photo: Reuters

Anas Zeidan, an official in the interim administration responsible for museums and antiquities. Photo: Reuters

Members of the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra perform during a concert at the Opera House in Damascus, Syria, in January 2025. Photo: Reuters

Syrian artist Sara Shamma attends a retrospective of her work at the Damascus National Museum. She says artists’ fears have been dispelled and she is optimistic about the future. Photo: Reuters

Mustafa Ali, a prominent Syrian sculptor, at his atelier in the Old City of Damascus. Photo: Reuters

A life-size horse and other artworks at the atelier of sculptor Mustafa Ali. Artists had feared “some people might not accept sculptures or figurative work”. Photo: Reuters

Immersive ‘Van Gogh Alive’ exhibition returns to Hong Kong

“Van Gogh Alive” features over 30 screens for an immersive experience. Photo: Grande Experiences

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh is exhibited on screens at “Van Gogh Alive”. Photo: Grande Experiences

Vincent van Gogh’s paintings come together with auditory and olfactory elements at “Van Gogh Alive”. Photo: Grande Experiences

The immersive area at “Van Gogh Alive”. Photo: Grande Experiences

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A visitor to an exhibition of AI-created art Christie’s is selling views Embedding Study 1 & 2, created by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst. Photo: AFP

An AI artwork created by Vanessa Rosa called Little Martians & Abraham” at a preview of Christie’s AI art auction. The sale has angered many human artists. Photo: AFP

An interactive proto hologram of AI artist Clare Silver, part of an exhibition for the Augmented Intelligence auction at Christie’s in New York. All the works in the auction were created by or with the use of some form of artificial intelligence. Photo: EPA-EFE

An AI artwork created by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst called Embedding Study 1 & 2 in the sale exhbition. Photo: AFP

A visitor to the exhibition in New York looks at an AI artwork Christie’s is selling called Words Can Communicate Beyond Words, created by Sasha Stiles. Photo: AFP 

Golden Breath, generated by Keke, an autonomous AI artist developed by Dark Sando. Photo: EPA-EFE

Emerging Faces by Pindar Van Arman is estimated to sell for up to US$250,000. Photo: AFP

An AI artwork created by Huemin called Dream-0 #9. Photo: AFP

Two tapestries titled Marie Antoinette After the Singularity #1 and Marie Antoinette After the Singularity #2, made with images created by text-to-image generating tools in a collaboration between Grimes, Mac Boucher, Mariya Jacobo and Eurypheus. Photo: EPA-EFE

A printout of AI artwork created by ClownVamp’s The Junk Machine at a preview for Christie’s Augmented Intelligence sale in New York. Photo: AFP

Liquid Modernity’ by Alkan Avcioglu on display at the ongoing exhibition for the Augmented Intelligence auction at Christie’s auction house, in New York. Photo: EPA-EFE

The set-up for the work Long Short Term Memories (sketches from a garden in Argentina) by Sofia Crespo and Anna Ridler, which will be created using data from photographs the artists took on trips to Argentina. Photo: EPA-EFE

A person is reflected in the work Machine Hallucinations – ISS Dreams – A (i), an AI-driven data painting by artist Refik Anadol. Photo: EPA-EFE

The end of Hong Kong’s golden age marked the start of her success

Visual artist Jaffa Lam at her studio in Fo Tan, Hong Kong. Photo: Eugene Chan

Jaffa Lam poses with one of her installation works at her studio. Photo: Eugene Chan

Somersault Cloud (2022), left, incorporates materials recycled from Lam’s past works. Starry Day (2015/2022), right, was originally stretched on a canvas in previous exhibitions. Photo: courtesy of Axel Vervoordt Gallery

Painter Lui Shou-kwan. Photo: Handout

Author Lu Xun with his wife Xu Guangping and their child, pictured in 1930. Photo: Xinhua

Lamqua (Guan Zuolin) in a self-portrait in 1853. Photo: Handout

Jaffa Lam takes a break from working at her studio. Photo: Eugene Chan

Video artist Ellen Pau at a retrospective show of her works in Quarry Bay, in December 2018. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Cheung Yee, one of Hong Kong’s early Modernist artists and a mentor to Jaffa Lam. Photo: Hong Kong Museum of Art

Clerical script in “Black Tiger” style by Jaffa Lam. Photo: Hong Kong Museum of Art

To Someone Who Wants to Fly by Jaffa Lam. Photo: Jaffa Lam

Jaffa Lam with some of her tools at her studio in Hong Kong. Photo: Eugene Chan

Trolley Party by Jaffa Lam, on display at Art Basel Hong Kong 2023. Photo: Elson Li

Jaffa Lam chooses a tool to work with. Photo: Eugene Chan

A Piece of Good Water III (2017) by Jaffa Lam. Photo: courtesy of Axel Vervoordt Gallery

PostMag

Culture

Inhwa Yeom uses XR and AI to create artworks offering social commentary; catch her at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s ‘Future Tense’ exhibition


Inhwa Yeom uses XR and AI to create artworks offering social commentary; catch her at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s ‘Future Tense’ exhibition.


This artist puts audiences at the centre of her digital creations

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Inhwa Yeom uses XR and AI to create artworks offering social commentary; catch her at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s ‘Future Tense’ exhibition

Inhwa Yeom uses XR and AI to create artworks offering social commentary; catch her at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s ‘Future Tense’ exhibition