DE SARTHE is pleased to present Possible World, Seoul-based artist Jung Jin’s first solo exhibition at the gallery and in Hong Kong, featuring a body of interconnected works on canvas and paper. Using abstract references to well-known children’s animations, including Walt Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and “Snow White,” the artist crafts a collection of annotated imagery that identifies and highlights the feelings of anxiety and confusion that underlie the overstatements of optimism commonly perceived from classic fairytales. Constructing alternative interpretations by juxtaposing figurative depictions with geometric patterns, Jung Jin reveals an unexpected level of empirical realism within fantasy and introduces a world in which the absurdly idealistic ethos of fiction seems possible after all.

Using selected scenes from Walt Disney’s iconic movies, the artist overlays painted collages of abstract, geometric, and disorienting patterns that are suggestive of shock, uncertainty, and displacement. From scenes of Ariel standing for the very first time to Snow White searching her way through the forest, Jung Jin magnifies the moments of trial and tribulation within each story and accentuates the undercurrents of vulnerability that are finely woven into the structures of fantasy. The artist also utilizes a technique through which she creates layered cut-outs within her compositions, uncovering hidden messages within the image. Dissecting encounters of fear and trauma – and consequentially, of confrontation and transformation – the artist elucidates the nuanced dynamics that form the realms of fiction and illumines the points of reality and resonance that enable the perpetuation of illusion.

Gallery address: 26/F, M Place, 54 Wong Chuk Hang Road