Norito is pleased to announce Through the Shattered Mirror of Yi Sang, its inaugural group exhibition
The me-inside-the-mirror is the opposite of me and yet looks quite like me – It’s a pity
For I cannot agonize over and examine the me-inside-the-mirror– Yi Sang, Mirror
Yi Sang, a key figure in modern Korean literature, is known for his avant-garde and surrealist style, which broke from traditional literary forms. His works were significantly ahead of their time, blending elements of surrealism, cubism, and Dadaism—artistic movements he was influenced by, particularly from the West. His career as a writer gained limited recognition during his short life. Today, he is considered a foundational figure in Korean modernism and a symbol of creative resistance against the conformity of his era.
Through the Shattered Mirror of Yi Sang is an exploration of identity, memory, and emotion through the metaphor of reflection and fragmentation. Drawing from Yi Sang’s recurring motif of the ‘mirror’, this exhibition unfolds as a surreal narrative, challenging traditional notions of self as wholeness and completeness. As we journey through life, half-awake and half-dreaming, we encounter complex motifs of dualism—loneliness and connection, joy and sorrow, human and animal, healing and destruction. These contrasting forces weave through the exhibition, highlighting the tension between transformation and stasis.
Jingyi Li’s soft lace takes the sharp form of butter knives, while reimagined selves in Jiyeon Ryu, Estelle Simpson and Cayetano S.D Santamaria’s surrealist paintings dominate altered realities. Roberta DeCaro’s Tears for Breakfast takes the shape of lacrimarium thought to encase the traces of grief during Roman time giving physical form to what is often invisible. Liu Kim’s Anicca series, marked by broken and imperfect forms, meditates on fragmentation and the impermanence of existence, while Hongil Yoon’s fragmented viewpoints reveal the multiple realities people navigate today. The juxtaposition of the known and the unknown, the human and the animalistic, creates a disquieting sense of the uncanny, inviting viewers into a world where everything feels slightly out of place, yet eerily recognisable.
Through the Shattered Mirror of Yi Sang was inspired by a conversation with Ryu, one of the featured artists, about works based on Yi Sang’s poetry. The exhibition bridges literature and visual art, reintroducing the tradition of their close interaction while addressing the historical divide between the two in Eastern contexts. It invites viewers to engage with Korean modernist literature, which had been overshadowed by Korea’s oppressed past but is now regaining recognition. By doing so, this exhibition not only sheds light on Yi Sang’s literary legacy but also encourages the audience to view visual art through the lens of literary movements.