South Korean artist incorporates Arctic imagery, mythology in artwork

“What is the shape of the soul?”

That was the question South Korean artist Kim Seola posed to Inuit artists in Kinngait Studios during her two visits to the Arctic.

The answers she received — “the tongues of leaves,” “the light around the limbs of animals,” “the full moon,” and “the shadows” — shaped a series of four ink-on-silk paintings that merge Arctic imagery with Korean artistic traditions.

Travelling nearly 10,000 kilometres as part of the Korea-Canada Arctic Research Project, Seola and two other South Korean artists explored the relationship between memory, mythology, and artistic expression during weeklong visits in November 2023 and mid-2024, hosted by the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative Ltd.

Seola’s trip was a part of a broader international exchange between artists from Korea and Kinngait by the Lee KangHa Art Museum in Gwangju, South Korea, and the West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative.

The result of the exchange was a November 2024 exhibition at the Korean Cultural Centre Canada in Ottawa titled Home and Other Places on the three artists’ experiences during their artist residencies in Kinngait.

The exhibition’s underlying concept — what it means to find a sense of home in unfamiliar, even challenging, landscapes — was integral to Seola’s work.

Her own hometown in South Korea had been demolished by industrialization, an experience that left her grappling with the loss of her roots, she said.

“We can no longer live on the land which my hometown is on because of chemical factories. When I visited the Arctic, I simultaneously recalled my own memories as well, but with snow and ice” she said. 

During her visits, she engaged with local artists including Shuvinai Ashoona, Qavavau Manumie, Ningiukulu Teevee, Ooloosie Saila, Saimaiyu Akesuk, and Pitseolak Qimirpik.

One of her works, The Day the Moon Rises and the Day It Does Not Rise, was inspired by Ashoona’s concept of the soul as a full moon.

Titled “The Day the Moon Rises and the Day it does not Rise,” this silk painting by Kim Seola was inspired by Kinngait artist Shuvinai Ashoona’s answer to the question “What is the soul?,” which Ashoona described as “the full moon.” (Image courtesy of Kim Seola)

Another, The Unknown Ahead, depicted the waters surrounding Kinngait in a wave-like pattern inside the shape of an amauti.

A third piece, inspired by the idea of shadows as souls, featured an ulu, which Seola first saw on the wall of a Kinngait home, intertwined with roots or seaweed.

Seola also drew inspiration from Inuit mythology, particularly the story of Nuliajuk, and the Inuit concept of inua, which is a spirit or life force.

“I’m very interested in the mythology in the Arctic, but I didn’t want to just jump into their territory, so I needed to speak to local artists and do research,” she said. 

Each of Seola’s paintings took about a month to complete as she translated the Inuit artists’ words into visual forms.

While in Kinngait, she also studied stonecut printmaking and documented the Arctic landscape.

Seola’s work has been featured in international exhibitions, including the 14th Gwangju Biennale in 2023, where 90 works by 32 Inuit artists were showcased in the Canadian Pavilion under the theme Myth Becomes Reality.

In June 2024, she collaborated with local artists in Kinngait to present The Myth of the Arctic Becomes Image at the Kenojuak Cultural Centre.

The four paintings are now displayed at Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai, India.