Hyun Jang

My personal experiences of living as a foreigner in Germany and my growing sense of alienation from my native country, Korea, serve as the starting point for my work. The longing for an unattainable homeland functions as my artistic strategy for examining the global phenomenon of the media’s reproduction of nature and the transformation of nature into a standardized consumer good.

In this series, which explores the effects of distance and imagination, my still lifes become fictional worlds. They evoke a sense of déjà vu and defy association with real places. The compositions challenge globally circulating images of nature: catalogs, calendars, and product packaging present idealized nature kitsch devoid of aura—visual simulacra that have drifted away from reality through constant reproduction. The smooth surfaces and artificial objects create moments of the uncanny. Between personal memory and landscapes in images, I explore how this “packaged nature” disrupts our notions of familiarity and strangeness.

Biography

Hyun Jang, b. 1994 in Gwangju (KR); lives and works in Essen (DE). After studying painting at Kookmin University (BA), she completed her studies in photography (BA) at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, where she is currently pursuing her master’s degree. In 2026, she received a grant from the NRW Diversity Fund and serves as co-director of an artistic project there. Her works have been exhibited at venues including the Spinnerei Leipzig. Jang presented her publications at the f2 Fotofestival Dortmund and at Miss Read Berlin.