DURÉE PURE

Soryun Ahn, Dina Jin Bae, Liu Xinran, Raina Seung Eun Jung, Juna Kim

‘Durée Purec’ or “pure duration” is a concept originally developed by the philosopher Henri markings of passing time, rather he explores the lived experience of time: time as flow, a quantitative whole. Here in this exhibition, each artist explores this flow of time through a subjective lens. Time is melting. Time is stopping. Time is dripping. Time is being held. Time ss cyclical. This subjective experience is then expanded upon through each viewer’s lens. Through the tactile perception of various materials including metal, canvas, wood, wax, makeup, sand, and pigment the amount of time that each material has already undergone and the amount of time that each material still has left is brought to the forefront. What exactly are we seeing in front of us? As one work on paper answers: “I wish I have a answer for you…”

Soryun Ahn (b. 1986, South Korea) is a painter currently based in London whose work blurs the lines between inner and outer worlds, imagination and reality. Deeply rooted in personal mythology and psychological fantasy, her practice reconfigures fragments of ancient stories and autobiographical memory into painterly scenes that fold time in on itself. Ahn’s canvasesoperate as sites of myth-making—spaces where fiction and history intermingle and narrative becomes fluid. Ahn holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2024) and Korea National University of Arts (2020). Recent exhibitions include A Night Walk at Sahng-up Gallery (Seoul) and The Breathing Sound of Shadow at Hapjungjigu (Seoul), as well as group shows in London, Toronto, and Seoul

Dina Jin Bae (b. 1988, South Korea) is an artist whose practice operates at the intersection of globalised beauty standards and body politics. Shaped by a decade in the K-Beauty industry, Bae employs a Material Forensics methodology. Using industrial residue, she interrogates the geopolitical inscription of idealised East Asian femininity and the spiritual cost of mass consumption. Bae received her MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2024). Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in London at the Kingston Museum and the Gerald Moore Gallery, as well as across Italy and South Korea.

Raina Seung Eun Jung (b. 1995, Seoul, Korea) is a London-based artist who works with diverse mediums such as traditional Korean paper, silk, and metal for surfaces and uses oil, gouache, and ink. Jung is interested in discovering the coexistence of heterogeneous things while pursuing what she wants to record. By recording her discoveries through materials with history and drawing the scenery that occurs every moment, she hopes to engage society in her vision while asking what matters and what to care about.

Juna Kim (b. 1990, South Korea) is a London-based artist whose work explores fragmented memory, emotional tension, and the incompleteness of identity. She holds an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London (2024). Moving between Korean and British cultures, Kim visualises the fluid boundaries between inner experience and external reality through drawing, collage, and painting. Her layered and fractured compositions transform personal emotions into universal reflections on belonging, alienation, and the human condition.

Xinran Liu (b. 1998, Chengdu) is a Chinese artist based in London. She holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received her MFA in Painting from the Royal College of Art. In 2023, Liu was shortlisted for the Chadwell Award. In 2024 she won the Boynes Artist Award. Liu's works have been exhibited internationally in cities including London, Shanghai, Beijing, Taichung, Hong Kong, and Chicago.