As if nothing happened begins with the exposed infrastructure of an empty studio after the COVID-19 lockdown: fluorescent fixtures, ventilation grilles, tangled wires and a thermometer. Studio views alternate with images of a residential heating system releasing vapor. A persistent ventilation sound connects the two spaces. For the artist, its resemblance to aircraft cabin air circulation evokes a feeling of remaining in transit, unable to fully arrive in a new country.

A subtitled exchange recalls moments of intimacy and uncertainty: swimming toward someone in a lake and suddenly losing the reassurance of solid ground, sharing pizza in an empty parking lot, and trying to describe oneself. Typing, fan noises and a squeaking chair become a vocabulary of onomatopoeia, as though two people were learning each other’s language.

The film places these attempts at communication alongside everyday infrastructures that operate without demanding attention. Vapor clouds and disperses; messages and gestures remain without clear confirmation. Read through the artist’s experience of cultural dislocation, these images open questions about cross-cultural intimacy, the limits of understanding and the distance that can persist within shared space—as if nothing happened.

Watch excerpt on Vimeo ↗

Two curtains embroidered with ‘Fluency’ and ‘Non-Native’ open and close in alternation. This quiet choreography explores how language creates boundaries of belonging and exclusion, visibility and concealment.

Heewoong is often heard as Hugh in Toronto or Guillaume in Montréal. Through casting, molding and disposable materials, this work explores how names and objects change meaning as they move between cultural contexts.

Three vertical lightboxes recall Korean storefront signs. Aluminum, fluorescent lighting and a discarded Dollarama image printed on fabric take on a tombstone-like presence in Montréal. The unfinished phrase ‘BUT / YOU / DON’T’ evokes voices that remain only partly visible and audible across cultural displacement. 2023, Centre MAI. Photo: Paul Litherland.

A discarded Dollarama photograph of waves prompted a series of questions: where did the image come from, who took it, and how did it reach the shelves of a discount store? Through phone calls, emails and online searches, I traced it to Adobe Stock and found the photographer, Andrey Amyagov. I attempted to begin a conversation, but the connection was brief. Where a direct exchange remained elusive, I allowed artificial intelligence to continue the narrative. The discarded image became material for a story moving between human encounters and automated responses. 2023. Synchronized two-channel video (colour, sound, 5 min. 55 sec., loop), vinyl prints and wood. SIGHTINGS 39, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery. September 25, 2023–January 21, 2024. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro. Courtesy of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery.

A self-organized, self-learning cooperative producing site-specific chandeliers. Each artist retains authorship of individual works while exhibiting collectively. Ideas, attitudes and imagination become a means to explore art, craft, design and the meaning of objects beyond capital. Original text: Dirk Fleischmann. Artists: Heewoong Jin, Dirk Fleischmann, Park Sunah, Yoon Hongsan, Shin Hyocheol, Jang Minhee, Park Jungsun.

These works explore power and bias encountered while navigating an unfamiliar city in a non-native language. In Mynameisyours, a deteriorating building accompanies ‘I’m barely balancing.’ Korean storefront signage in my english is not good enough / mon anglais n’est pas assez bon brings physical and psychological balance into dialogue with the intersections of language. IGNITION 17, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal, 2022. Photo: Jean-Michael Seminaro. Courtesy of the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery.

A house becomes a live theatre at night. Two performers move through darkened rooms with flashlights while viewers follow the light from outside. The work explores intimacy, distance, slow movement and the voyeuristic gaze. PH V, Montréal, 2020.

A performance sharing longing for home through a glass of sake and a clementine. Video calls connecting loved ones after migration prompt questions about online and offline encounters, physical distance and shared space. PH IV, Montréal, 2020.

QO is a collective of wayfarers. Where can work be shown when our lives are in motion? The white cube gives art room to breathe while also drawing its boundaries. Instead of settled ground, QO takes the sky as compass and companion, extending the gallery’s walls toward the horizon. This single-channel video brings together daily recordings of the sky. Looking upward evokes childhood and the distance from home, physically and mentally. It also brings the realization that more airplanes than birds cross the sky. Exhibition in the Sky, curated by QO, Jarry Park, Montréal, 2019. Single-channel video, 8 min. 21 sec.

A collaborative project by Heewoong Jin and Kevin Jung-Hoo Park exploring migration, instability and belonging. It asks how both distance from home and movement itself transform individuals and communities.

Moving Trailer is an ongoing performative intervention in the city, begun in 2017. Exhibitions take place inside a trailer rather than a gallery, recalling the ritual of moving day. Each temporary stop creates a place for artworks and their audience. The first Montréal solo exhibition in 2017 began with the bodily feeling of still being in transit after migration. In 2018, two objects leaning on each other shifted and collided with the vehicle’s speed and the road’s vibrations. The distance between them after each journey echoed emotional movement within a relationship. In 2019, Claire Stewart and I developed mymontréalchandelierchohab. Looking at the moon in a public park led us to ask whether moonlight could be ‘packed’ inside a trailer, bringing movement and light into dialogue.

Found, discarded objects are selected and emptied of their prior functions and meanings, forming new relationships. Recalling readymade and minimalist traditions, the work questions how language and meaning are assigned to objects. 2017, One and J+, Seoul. Summary of the original critical text. Introduction adapted from the critical text by Kim Hyojung (Theory of Art). Related presentations: Barim Media Space, Gwangju, 2014; One and J+, Seoul, 2017; Peripheral Hours, Montréal, 2018.

A former community space for retired soldiers, awaiting demolition, becomes a temporary exhibition. Abandoned objects, images and traces are reimagined as a souvenir shop, revealing how forgotten things acquire new artistic meaning. Jungdong Small Museum, Daejeon, 2016.

Beginning with childhood memories of unidentified sounds in a quiet room, the work collects and amplifies the sounds of windows, wall cracks, a water cooler, thresholds, stairs and floors. The unseen voices of architecture coexist with the audience. Art Space One, Seoul.

Work of Rest questions the relationship between the production expected in a residency and the rest an artist needs. During Barim’s eight-day residency in 2015, I was balancing childcare, employment and artistic work. I wanted the support to take the form of rest. Rather than travelling myself, I delegated the journey and tasks to another participant. Communication and coordination became another form of work; delegation alone did not guarantee rest. The documentation developed into the 2024–2025 exhibition at Dazibao. Dazibao, Montréal. November 14, 2024–January 18, 2025. Exhibition photographs: Matthieu Brouillard. Early residency material is included below.

EVERYTHING IS REALLY GOING TO BE ALRIGHT pays homage to Martin Creed’s Work No. 203. An optimistic phrase carries an ongoing inner monologue about the tensions between North and South Korea and the site’s history, leaving its meaning open to each viewer. Real DMZ Project, 2015. Art Sonje Center, Seoul; Dongsong, Pocheon Mill.

Cheongju Creative Studio, Cheongju, 2015.

Daecheongho Museum, Cheongju, 2014.

Hammers, nails and a wall express the rigidity and tension of social interaction. Light and shadows reveal transformation over time. 2014–2015, Cheongju Creative Studio and SALT Art Gallery, Gwangju. Graphic text: JUNG YoungHoon.