In an era creaking under the weight of too much content, we are increasingly at the mercy of the immediate. This often manifests itself as an immediacy of meaning: ideology as rigid and unwavering, identities and labels as sacrosanct, and the confessional, in which the personal is always political, as the order of the day. But there still exists a number of artists who see value and significance in mystery, uncertainty, and hesitancy, who are attuned to the myriad complexities of the world and of the self, who champion reflection, contemplation, and the timelessness of things. 

For our cover feature, ArtAsiaPacific’s managing editor Oliver Clasper excavates the obscure foundations upon which the Korean painter Jinju Lee has built her most arresting works. Since the late 2000s, she has steadily created large-scale tableaux depicting strange and uncanny scenes loaded with symbolism, oneiric detail, and seemingly surreal elements, many of which represent the vagaries of her own mind. In recent years Lee has also developed a parallel suite of works. These intimate, dark, quieter paintings feature isolated body parts: hands and, most notably, faces, often mirrored, often obscured, evoking the subconscious demons of her shadow side as well as the latent traumas of childhood. Lee’s reticence to provide clear and concrete meanings behind her work forces us as viewers to contend with our own troubled pasts.

No less revealing in terms of behaviors we hide and repress, especially when it comes to states of loneliness, sexuality, and family relations, are the films of the Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang. Now in his sixties, he is one of the most revered auteurs of his generation, and over the course of four decades he has formed an intimate collaboration with the actor Lee Kang-sheng, who has appeared in all of his feature films to date. Frances James met with Tsai in Hong Kong where they talked about how he builds and maintains trust with his actors, his coming to terms with his own struggles with anxiety, and how his move to the countryside outside of Taipei has allowed him to finally find a sense of tranquility in an increasingly mad world.  

As a counterpoint, a special feature this issue surveys eight emerging painters who represent a new generation filled with a powerful sense of urgency—from Amanda Ba and Mikey Yates to Oscar Yi Hou and Un Cheng. Associate editor Alex Yiu introduces four artists who depict scenes of the mundane overlaid with strong psychological overtones—from detritus on the streets to a portrait of an aspiring music producer in his bedroom. Meanwhile, assistant editor Anna Lentchner excavates notions of the body—how it is seen (by the self and others) and how its representation can playfully subvert cultural categories and norms. 

Elsewhere, in Inside Burger Collection the curator Qu Chang interweaves passages from two 20th-century cultural theorists, Roland Barthes and Judith Butler, with her own diary entries as a way to explore the subject of mourning that runs through the practice of Isaac Chong Wai, whose performance Falling Reversely (2021/24) was staged in the 60th Venice Biennale. Our Profiles discover the multidisciplinary works of Taipei-based Musquiqui Chihying, who combines literature, theory, technology, and pop culture, as well as the queer performative works of Dew Kim, who riffs on geopolitics and religion with infusions of sadomasochism.  

In One on One, the Dresden-based Chinese artist Rao Fu expresses his admiration for the sublime landscapes of German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. Writing from Jeju Island for Dispatch, Yujin Lee extols the tireless work of the artist-activists resisting the overdevelopment of Korea’s major tourist destination, where she is based. The Point looks at the recent closure of an LGBTQ+ exhibition in Istanbul, amid a larger crackdown on civil-society initiatives. In New Currents, we spotlight Seoul-based Hwang Sueyon, who reinterprets social-media content into sculptural works that she likens to physical performances; Choi Goen, also from Seoul, who unearths the invisible infrastructure sustaining digital technology through her sculptures; and London-based artist Victor Lim Seaward, who reflects on the symbolic power of colonialism. Our Previews cast an eye toward exhibitions in Seoul of Do Ho Suh and Anicka Yi as well as two upcoming showcases in London: Mire Lee’s large-scale Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern and Haegue Yang’s Hayward Gallery survey.

This issue, in Reviews, we explore the esteemed South African artist William Kentridge’s major retrospective at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, as well as solo showcases from Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Manila, Hong Kong, and Los Angeles. And finally, for Where I Work, Daphne Chu visited the temporary South London studio of Steph Huang as she prepared for her exhibition “See, See, Sea” at Tate Britain. Born in Taiwan, Huang is interested in the healing properties of certain objects and how conceiving of an exhibition is similar to a game of chess, where she imagines herself as  both players—artist and viewer—at the same time.