Artist: Heeyoung Noh

THE TAGLI Gallery presents a solo exhibition of South Korean artist Heeyoung Noh, entitled Submerged Attachment.

In Submerged Attachment, Noh delves into the tensions between belonging and alienation, grappling with the complexities of collective identity as a South Korean woman living abroad in the United Kingdom. The artist finds solace in the ritual of ttaemiri, a traditional Korean bathing practice, through which she reclaims a deep-rooted connection to her heritage. The exhibition is a celebration of sacred bathing culture and an intimate homage to the resilience and power of South Korean women across generations.

A poignant meditation on the interplay between personal freedom and inextricable familial bonds resonates throughout Noh’s work. Much like Vivian Gornick’s evocative exploration of mother-daughter relationships, Submerged Attachment navigates the dual forces of intimacy and detachment, nostalgia and renewal.

Heeyoung Noh is a figurative painter who explores colonial trauma and diaspora by reproducing body images from South Korea. She received a B.A. from Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul in 2019 and an MFA at the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow in 2024. Noh was the 2024 recipient of THE TAGLI Mentorship Award in collaboration with the Folco Collection. Her practice entails a critical perspective toward diasporic identity and collective trauma as an Asian and Korean woman. She uses the female’s body image as the main material to reinforce the ethnic identity: the colour of skin and hair and the vestige of Ttaemiri, a Korean traditional way of bathing. She also explores the vanished stories of relationships between mothers and daughters in the past generation through the feminism lens to highlight the collective and historical trauma inflicted by the state and patriarchal power. Her practice entails a critical perspective toward diasporic identity and collective trauma as an Asian and Korean woman. She uses the female’s body image as the main material to reinforce the ethnic identity: the colour of skin and hair and the vestige of Ttaemiri, a Korean traditional way of bathing. She also explores the vanished stories of relationships between mothers and daughters in the past generation through the feminism lens to highlight the collective and historical trauma inflicted by the state and patriarchal power.