Kyungmi Shin, Yoo Geun Taek, Xi’an Kim, +Lily Wong, Phantom Rooms

NEWCHILD, Antwerp, Brussels |18 October - 28 November 2024

Many of the works in Phantom Rooms explore the global exchanges—of people, cultures, and objects— while delving into the historical traces found in both Dutch and Korean still-life traditions. Kyungmi Shin’s works draws on the movement of goods through trade, reflecting on the circulation of porcelain, antiquities, and imagery, and tracing how these objects come to embody the cultural desires and shifting values of different eras. In her 2024 diptych A Promised Afterlife, Shin uses photo transfer and acrylic on wood panels to create a richly layered composition that juxtaposes historical and contemporary elements. The work evokes the opulence of a Louis XIV Beauvais chinoiserie tapestry, specifically La Collation from the Histoire de l’Empereur de Chine series, depicting an imagined Chinese emperor and empress in a pagoda, though European influences are evident in the figures, décor, and textures. Attendants serve tea and fruit among elaborate porcelain and gilt dishes, while musicians and dancers reflect themes of cultural fantasy, wealth, and cross-cultural exchange. A silver line drawing of a chaekgeori, a Korean still-life tradition, overlays the scene, featuring imported objects. Beneath this, a portrait of a young Korean adoptee and vessels used in Korean royal rituals add layers of personal and historical memory, creating a rich juxtaposition where imagination and reality collide. 

The composition in Shin’s A Promised Afterlife echoes the lively, chaotic depictions of domestic life and social interaction seen in 17th-century Dutch genre paintings,such as those by Jan Steen, where crowded scenes filled with material culture convey narratives about family and society. Shin’s work, however, goes beyond a single cultural or temporal reference by incorporating photographic representations of diaspora and migration, connecting the objects in the painting to the human experiences they signify.