Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1975 Busan, South Korea

Year of Migration to the UK: 2005

Biography

Visual artist Chan-Hyo Bae was born on 22 June 1975, in Busan, South Korea. He studied photography at Kyungsung University, South Korea, afterwards working as a photojournalist. In 2005 he moved to England to study at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (2005–2007), where he trained under renowned conceptual artist John Hilliard.

Despite his deep fascination with British cultural history, which prompted his move to England, after his arrival he felt a deep sense of alienation and exclusion. His experience as a newcomer in an alien society inspired his well-known series of photographic tableaux, Existing in Costume (2007–2016), first shown at 204 Window Gallery, Bristol in 2008. In these elaborate ‘mises-en-scene’, Bae dressed up as women from British royalty, using the trappings of British cultural history as expressed in antique oil paintings to construct ironic images that placed the ‘alien’ Asian man in the midst of Britain’s aristocratic past. Curator Bill Kouwenhoven wrote in the exhibition catalogue that ‘Similar to the ways Western philosophers and anthropologists chose to analyze cultures foreign to them by designating them as ‘the Other,’ in an inversion of ‘Western’ norm, Chan-hyo Bae reverses the perspective by examining ‘the West’ as ‘the Other’ from his personal, non-Western, point of view’ (Kouwenhoven 2018). Aware of how Asian men were perceived and portrayed as weak and effeminate in Western culture, in these photographs Bae assumed the female role, challenging the boundaries of ethnicity and gender. Bae declared that ‘I grew up in a culture that prioritises men. Before the UK, I never questioned this superiority, and I realised that cultural supremacy and male supremacy are no different’ (Nandhakumar 2019). Bae's beautiful and meticulous images of noblewomen from the past also emphasised feelings of displacement and estrangement. The elaborate costumes, backdrops and hairdos were inspired by different time periods — including Elizabethan and Tudor eras — ranging from the 13th to 19th centuries. In some photographs, he held anachronistic objects that revealed his true identity, including his military tag from the time he served in the South Korean forces. As noted by Alasdair Foster, ‘Chan-Hyo Bae’s images draw on art history not simply for its aesthetic effect but as a form of research; a journey of unfolding discovery. Yet, while each series leads him to fresh insights, it also raises new questions as the onion skins of culture are peeled back one by one’ (Talking Pictures interview).

In his later work, Bae investigated fairy tales and witch hunting stories that are embedded into Western culture. In these series, he recreated scenes from Cinderella and Snow White, or represented himself as a witch in a forest. Bae explained that the witch hunt in the Western Middle Ages – a way to rationalise the violent condemnation of the weak and unconventional by socially dominant groups – still persists in modern society with contemporary forms of ‘witch hunt’ that persecute those seen by the majority as ‘other’ (Talking Pictures Interview). In his series Punishment (2013), addressing the theme of social power, Bae appeared as figures from British history who were executed, such as Mary, Queen of Scots. In his recent work Jumping Into, exhibited at Purdy Hicks Gallery, London in 2019, Bae depicted himself at the centre of Old Masters paintings from National Gallery, London, by painters including Titian, Rubens and Crivelli. The artist recalled that ‘One day as I was walking by the River Thames contemplating about the truth – that to me seemed unresolvable – I imagined a Western painting laying on top of the waters of the River Thames, then imagined myself jumping into it. I found myself in full of excitement and satisfaction’ (Zealous).

In 2019 he visited Chennai, India, for an artist's residency hosted by InKo the Centre, during which he experimented with sculpture for the first time. The resulting Alter Project addressed issues of superstition and religious understanding. In this work Bae explored the concept of ‘cultural relativism’, asking himself how different cultural contexts affect whether absolute faith is received with fear or amusement, and reflecting on how one person’s faith could be just a myth or superstition for another. His multi-media installation The Ganesha Temple, integral to the Alter Project, symbolised the absolute faith, according to Bae ‘the ultimate goal of an ideal religion that has no exclusive superiority, a morality that does not violate anyone and provides for a fulfilling life’ (The Alter Project). In 2019, the monograph Existing in Costume was published by the Museum of Photography, Seoul. Bae has exhibited his work at a number of London institutions, including the Royal Academy of Arts (2012), Ben Uri Gallery and Museum (alongside Scottish artist Maud Sulter, 2013), and Saatchi Gallery (2017). He currently lives and works in London. His work is represented in the UK public domain in the University of Warwick Art Collection.

Related books

Occident's Eye, exhibition catalogue (Seoul: The Museum of Photography, 2020)
Boyoung Chang, Reconstructing the Nation: Contemporary Korean Photography Since the 1990s, dissertation, The State University of New Jersey, School of Graduate Studies (2019)
Pauline Greenhill, Jill Terry Rudy, Naomi Hamer and Lauren Bosc eds., The Routledge Companion to Media and Fairy-Tale Cultures (London: Routledge, 2018)
Kim Hong-Hee, Bill Kouwenhoven, Chan-Hyo Bae and Hanmi Sajin Misulgwan, Existing in Costume, exhibition catalogue (Seoul: The Museum of Photography, 2018)
Suejin Shin, Contemporary Korean Photography (Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz, 2017)
Mayako Murai, From Dog Bridegroom to Wolf Girl (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2015)
'Looking In, Ben Uri Gallery - Exhibition Review', Evening Standard, 11 July 2013
Katy Barron and Amber Butchart, Looking In: Photographic Portraits by Maud Sulter and Chan-Hyo Bae (London: Ben Uri Gallery: The London Jewish Museum of Art, 2013)
Keiko Hooton and Anthony George Godfrey, Contemporary Photography In Asia (London: Prestel, 2013)
Cristina Bacchilega, Fairy Tales Transformed?: Twenty-First-Century Adaptations and the Politics of Wonder (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013)
Romain Dagoul, New Photography in Korea, exhibition catalogue (Paris: Galerie Paris-Beijing, 2011)
Serenella Ciclitira, Korean Eye, exhibition catalogue (London: SKIRA, 2010)
Koo Bohnchang, Anne Wilkes Tucker and Karen Sinsheimer, Chaotic Harmony: Contemporary Korean Photography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009)

Public collections

University of Warwick Art Collection

Related organisations

Kyungsung University, South Korea (student)
Slade School of Fine Art (student)

Selected exhibitions

Jumping Into, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London (2019)
Korean Eye: Perceptual Trace, Saatchi Gallery, London (2017)
Punishment, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London (2013)
Looking in: Photographic Portraits, Ben Uri Gallery: The London Jewish Museum of Art, London (2013)
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2012)
Korean Eye: The Fantastic Ordinary, Saatchi Gallery, London (2010)
Fairy Tales, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London (2010)
Existing in Costume, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London (2009)
4482 Korean Contemporary Art, The Bargehouse, London (2008)
Existing in Costume, 204 Window Gallery, Bristol (2008)
Never Never, Aberystwyth Arts Centre (2012)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Chan-Hyo Bae]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Chan-Hyo Bae photographer