Gwangju Shinsegae Holds Special Exhibition for Environment Day, 'Objects Reunited'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Shin Dong-ho] Gwangju Shinsegae Co., Ltd. announced on the 26th that it will hold various events to commemorate 'Environment Day' on the 5th of next month.

This event is part of Gwangju Shinsegae Co., Ltd.'s efforts for social contribution, having grown together with local residents since its establishment as the industry's first local corporation in 1995.

As damage caused by environmental pollution such as global warming and household waste disposal problems has begun to be felt in daily life, environmental issues have become one of the most prominent social issues today.

Since sustainability is one of the core values of Gwangju Shinsegae Co., Ltd., which believes that fulfilling social responsibility increases corporate value, this Environment Day commemorative event holds great significance.

At the Gwangju Shinsegae Gallery, a special exhibition for 'Environment Day' titled 'Objects Revisited' will be held from the 28th of this month to the 22nd of next month.

Participating in this exhibition are six artists: Kim Sang-hyun, Kim Woo-jin, Shin Yang-ho, Yang Na-hee, Lee Jin-kyung, and Jo Mi-young, who showcase works reborn using easily used and discarded items in daily life such as plastic bags, paper boxes, plastic chairs, and aluminum cans.

As the title of the exhibition suggests, Objects Revisited presents a new perspective on objects in modern society where consumption and disposal are repeated.

Kim Sang-hyun’s installation work framing plastic bags and Lee Jin-kyung’s photographic work capturing black plastic bags like landscape paintings question the value of plastic bags, which are used once but take hundreds of years to decompose.

Delivery paper boxes, which have become more frequently encountered since the COVID-19 pandemic, also attracted the artists' attention.

Yang Na-hee’s flat works using box paper to capture everyday scenes and Jo Mi-young’s three-dimensional works depicting marginalized landscapes such as redevelopment areas convey a shared thematic consciousness despite their differences.

There are also works that can be approached more lightly. Shin Yang-ho, a mid-career artist from Gwangju, decorated one wall of the gallery with his representative fish artworks made by attaching aluminum cans and various scrap metals to wooden panels. Kim Woo-jin, familiar to visitors with his deer artwork displayed in the first-floor plaza since the 5th of last month, presents his early works using plastic chairs, which were the starting point of his animal-themed works.

Familiar objects transformed into beautiful artworks will captivate the hearts of visitors.

Along with the gallery exhibition, the main building’s first-floor event hall at Gwangju Shinsegae will host an event from the 4th to the 10th of next month introducing various eco-friendly and upcycling brands and products such as 'Plastic Product' and 'Museum Jaehee,' suggesting ways to practice environmental protection in daily life.

A Gwangju Shinsegae official said, “We hope this will be an opportunity to think together about what we can do for the region we live in regarding environmental issues that are becoming issues worldwide and to put those thoughts into actual actions.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.