Na Hyun
Na Hyun (b. 1970) is a Seoul-based artist whose practice engages with historical events and archival records. By constructing alternative archives and imaginatively filling in the gaps left by official records, he questions the truth claims embedded in seemingly objective documentation.
He won the Seoul Arts Award in 2025 and was nominated for the Korea Artist Prize by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA). He has held solo exhibitions at venues such as Finding Bigfoot (Oil tank Cultural park, Seoul, 2022), Babel - Different Tongues (Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, 2018), and Babel Tower (Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2014), and his works are included in the collections of major institutions in Korea such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, and Suwon Museum of Art.
PILE-RHINE 2010
watercolor on canvas, 140x240cm, 2013
We often take history to be an objective record of facts. Yet history is always a subjective narrative—shaped by the perspective of its narrator, and continually reconstructed by the ideologies and conditions of each era. Na Hyun challenges this belief, asserting that no absolute truth can exist.
The PILE-RHINE series is a body of work created as part of the artist’s ongoing project A Song of Lorelei, which began in 2010. The project begins with the reconstruction of a 2.9-meter-high oak stake, modeled after the posts once used to measure water levels and mark territorial boundaries. Installed on the banks of the Rhine River, the stake gradually leans, erodes, and ultimately loses its function as a boundary as the river overflows. What remains are only the traces left behind by passing water. Through video documentation of this process, Na reveals how easily human-made systems of order and division can collapse in the face of nature’s flow.
In the painting series PILE-RHINE, Na Hyun paints this landscape directly onto the surface of water. The moment the pigment touches the surface, it bleeds uncontrollably. As the water evaporates, the residue forms shapes entirely removed from the artist’s original intent. Through this unpredictable and uncontrollable process, Na underscores how the act of recording is never fixed—it is always shifting, shaped by the surrounding environment, time, and forces beyond human will.
PILE-RHINE 2012
watercolor on canvas, 140x240cm, 2013
We often take history to be an objective record of facts. Yet history is always a subjective narrative—shaped by the perspective of its narrator, and continually reconstructed by the ideologies and conditions of each era. Na Hyun challenges this belief, asserting that no absolute truth can exist.
The PILE-RHINE series is a body of work created as part of the artist’s ongoing project A Song of Lorelei, which began in 2010. The project begins with the reconstruction of a 2.9-meter-high oak stake, modeled after the posts once used to measure water levels and mark territorial boundaries. Installed on the banks of the Rhine River, the stake gradually leans, erodes, and ultimately loses its function as a boundary as the river overflows. What remains are only the traces left behind by passing water. Through video documentation of this process, Na reveals how easily human-made systems of order and division can collapse in the face of nature’s flow.
In the painting series PILE-RHINE, Na Hyun paints this landscape directly onto the surface of water. The moment the pigment touches the surface, it bleeds uncontrollably. As the water evaporates, the residue forms shapes entirely removed from the artist’s original intent. Through this unpredictable and uncontrollable process, Na underscores how the act of recording is never fixed—it is always shifting, shaped by the surrounding environment, time, and forces beyond human will.
PILE-RHINE 2010
Single-channel video, color, 56min 48sec, 2010
We often take history to be an objective record of facts. Yet history is always a subjective narrative—shaped by the perspective of its narrator, and continually reconstructed by the ideologies and conditions of each era. Na Hyun challenges this belief, asserting that no absolute truth can exist.
The PILE-RHINE series is a body of work created as part of the artist’s ongoing project A Song of Lorelei, which began in 2010. The project begins with the reconstruction of a 2.9-meter-high oak stake, modeled after the posts once used to measure water levels and mark territorial boundaries. Installed on the banks of the Rhine River, the stake gradually leans, erodes, and ultimately loses its function as a boundary as the river overflows. What remains are only the traces left behind by passing water. Through video documentation of this process, Na reveals how easily human-made systems of order and division can collapse in the face of nature’s flow.
In the painting series PILE-RHINE, Na Hyun paints this landscape directly onto the surface of water. The moment the pigment touches the surface, it bleeds uncontrollably. As the water evaporates, the residue forms shapes entirely removed from the artist’s original intent. Through this unpredictable and uncontrollable process, Na underscores how the act of recording is never fixed—it is always shifting, shaped by the surrounding environment, time, and forces beyond human will.
PILE-RHINE 2012
Single-channel video, color, 11min 32sec, 2012
We often take history to be an objective record of facts. Yet history is always a subjective narrative—shaped by the perspective of its narrator, and continually reconstructed by the ideologies and conditions of each era. Na Hyun challenges this belief, asserting that no absolute truth can exist.
The PILE-RHINE series is a body of work created as part of the artist’s ongoing project A Song of Lorelei, which began in 2010. The project begins with the reconstruction of a 2.9-meter-high oak stake, modeled after the posts once used to measure water levels and mark territorial boundaries. Installed on the banks of the Rhine River, the stake gradually leans, erodes, and ultimately loses its function as a boundary as the river overflows. What remains are only the traces left behind by passing water. Through video documentation of this process, Na reveals how easily human-made systems of order and division can collapse in the face of nature’s flow.
In the painting series PILE-RHINE, Na Hyun paints this landscape directly onto the surface of water. The moment the pigment touches the surface, it bleeds uncontrollably. As the water evaporates, the residue forms shapes entirely removed from the artist’s original intent. Through this unpredictable and uncontrollable process, Na underscores how the act of recording is never fixed—it is always shifting, shaped by the surrounding environment, time, and forces beyond human will.
PILE-RHINE 2013
Single-channel video, color, 10min 17sec, 2013
We often take history to be an objective record of facts. Yet history is always a subjective narrative—shaped by the perspective of its narrator, and continually reconstructed by the ideologies and conditions of each era. Na Hyun challenges this belief, asserting that no absolute truth can exist.
The PILE-RHINE series is a body of work created as part of the artist’s ongoing project A Song of Lorelei, which began in 2010. The project begins with the reconstruction of a 2.9-meter-high oak stake, modeled after the posts once used to measure water levels and mark territorial boundaries. Installed on the banks of the Rhine River, the stake gradually leans, erodes, and ultimately loses its function as a boundary as the river overflows. What remains are only the traces left behind by passing water. Through video documentation of this process, Na reveals how easily human-made systems of order and division can collapse in the face of nature’s flow.
In the painting series PILE-RHINE, Na Hyun paints this landscape directly onto the surface of water. The moment the pigment touches the surface, it bleeds uncontrollably. As the water evaporates, the residue forms shapes entirely removed from the artist’s original intent. Through this unpredictable and uncontrollable process, Na underscores how the act of recording is never fixed—it is always shifting, shaped by the surrounding environment, time, and forces beyond human will.
Bigfoot
2021-, Inflatable sculpture, 800 × 400 × 500 (h) cm
Na Hyun traces the remnants of those easily forgotten or erased from history. Traversing the margins of historical narratives, his work explores marginalized lives, unrecorded events, and the porous boundaries between humans and nature, extending documentary reality through installations and drawings.
Occupying the exhibition space, the monumental inflatable sculpture Bigfoot depicts a legendary figure whose existence has never been officially verified, despite centuries of reported sightings.
Seismograph
2024, Mixed media on digital print, 48 × 124 cm
Presented alongside it, Seismograph draws on archival records documenting the actual seismic activity generated by the eruption of Mount St. Helens. A scientifically measured record of disaster confronts a colossal figure whose very existence remains unproven.
What is real, and what is not? It is at the moment when this boundary begins to blur that magical thinking takes shape.
