Portfolio 2024
Hojin Kang

Scrolling Prayer Beads, 2022

Scrolling Prayer Beads, 3d-printed synthetic resin, acrylic varnish, 20x20x3cm, 2022

Sometimes I scroll through my feed
like my grandma uses her prayer beads

Scrolling Prayer Beads, Video (03:10min), 2022

Hojin Kang is a Berlin-based artist. His works deal with our presence in a digitalised time. He combines interactive technologies and concepts of mindfulness, inspired by Confucian and Buddhist traditions. Art, Media Art, Contemporary Art, Mindful Media, Studio Hojin Kang, 2023

Scrolling Prayer Beads, 3d-printed synthetic resin, acrylic varnish, 20x20x3cm, 2022

Prayer beads come in a variety of forms in Buddhism, Islam, Bahá'í, Hinduism, and Christianity. They help the devout count the repetitions of their mantras, chants, or prayers, or deepen their meditation. Praying and meditating individuals move the beads of the prayer chain with their fingers, piece by piece, a cyclical negotiation of touch, introspection, and enlightenment.

Hojin Kang's prayer beads consist of 12 beads and 1 Guru bead made of 3D-printed synthetic resin, imprinted with interaction symbols from the digital world through stereolithography.

With Scrolling Prayer Beads, Hojin Kang attempts to rethink the squaring of the circle between (post)-digital forms of externalization and Confucian and Buddhist concepts of mindfulness. How can we fulfill our desire for connectedness, intimacy, and inner reflection in a world where everything is an interface? Will scrolling become our new form of praying?

(Text: Ralph Tharayil & Hojin Kang)

Family Pictures, 2023

가족사진 Family Picture I, Thermal Image, 2200x1640px, 2023

가족사진 Family Picture II, Thermal Image, 2200x1640px, 2023

가족사진 Family Picture III, Thermal Image, 2200x1640px, 2023

Family Pictures, captured with special thermal imaging cameras. These cameras emphasize the heat signatures emitted by our bodies, regardless of gender, skin color, or physical traits. In doing so, they reveal an intimate, invisible layer of our deepest connections that traditional photography cannot capture.

In a time of political division and cultural fragmentation, the project aims to highlight the fundamental warmth of our human bodies, which has the potential to reunite us as human beings.

Mindfulness Bell, 2022

Mindfulness Bell, 3d-printed synthetic resin, acrylic varnish, 16x15x16cm, sound, 2022

663,044,400, Exhibition View, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, 2022

In the digital world, a notification bell indicates that a device such as a smartphone has recieved notifications. Hojin Kang has placed a sculpture of a bell, his Mindfullness Bell, in the entrance area. As a 3D-printed marker of real space, it illustrates the power of digital contexts in the analogue world.  

The constantly ringing signal of the bell demands attention — have you received another message? New likes or comments? How many new updates do you have to do?  

Continuous accessibility has a fundamental influence on our humanity. Our own body fades into the background as a result of being virtually everywhere. In addition to distraction and sensory overload, constant availability can also greatly change our relationships in the analogue world: Many people feel a sense of connection and belonging in virtual communities rather than in real life.

Do you breathe when you scroll?, 2022

Do you breathe when you scroll? 04, Video (01:10min), 2022

Do you breathe when you scroll?
 Do you breathe when you stream? 
Do you breathe when you swipe?

Do you breathe when you scroll?, Exhibition view, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, 2022

Do you breathe when you scroll? 01 – 05, Video Serie, 2022

Do you breathe when you scroll? 05, Video (02:00min), 2022

Do you breathe when you scroll? 02, Video (03:00min), 2022

In this work, Hojin Kang records his breathing — during everyday smartphone use — with a thermal imaging camera. In this way, he documents the direct impact of digital use on the vital process of breathing.  

Our body automatically controls our breathing, and many factors influence it. The question is, what effect does digital technology have on our everyday behaviour and our physical and mental state?

Please Wait, 2022

Please Wait, Exhibition view, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, 2022

Please Wait, Video (02:45min), 2022

Please Wait, Exhibition view, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, 2022

Something is loading. That means you have to be patient and wait. Wait until the content is loaded. What do you think will be shown? Maybe the internet connection is too poor, maybe something is broken? Technology promises solutions, perhaps even relief from all our problems.

A never-ending loading symbol — nightmare or anticipation? In this installation, an endless loop of buffer symbols creates an ever-increasing anticipation of an application that will never start. It is an allusion to the promise of redemption through technology.

663,044,400 BREATH SCULPTURE, 2022

663,044,400 – BREATH SCULPTURE, Exhibition view, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, 2022

663,044,400 Breaths per lifetime

9,082,800 per year
24,884.38 per day
1036.849 per hour
17.28 per minute
73 years life expectancy

663,044,400 – BREATH SCULPTURE, Exhibition view, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, 2022

663,044,400 – BREATH SCULPTURE, Breath-Tracking App via Thermal Image, 2022

663,044,400 – BREATH SCULPTURE, Thermal Image Camera, DPB Pixel Router, LED Spotlight, CNC-milled foam, Acrylic varnish, 2022

663,044,400 – BREATH SCULPTURE, Exhibition view, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, 2022

We live in a time of virtual ubiquity: permanent accessibility and remote work, hypercommunication and endless feeds. All this has a fundamental influence on our humanity. Our own body fades into the background as a result of being virtually everywhere.

Over the course of a lifetime, a person takes an average of 663,044,400 breaths. Breathing is the most existential bodily function. It regulates our circulation and can position us in the here and now. In the installation, breathing is utilised as a means of mindful media interaction to explore a data sculpture, one on one, without a smartphone.

The technical setup was created jointly with Norman Wassmuth and Julian Hespenheide: A thermal imaging camera tracks the visitors' breathing underneath FFP2 masks and then displays it in the form of light onto the sculpture. The structure of the sculpture that becomes visible as a result was milled with a CNC machine. It is based on data from the Chicxulub crater on the coast of Yucatán, Mexico. This crater is considered the place where our species' beginning on earth was triggered.

It invites us to reflect on our own hereness. And our daily interaction with technology.

Our breathing can locate us in the here and now; it is the existential connection to ourselves and to our environment. As a non-digital interaction, the work confronts the visitors with the significance of conscious experiences of hereness in the midst of virtual omnipresence.

So there are approximately 663,044,400 breaths in which we can consciously decide to be here, here on this earth.

Hojin Kang (*1986, lives and works in Berlin) is a german-korean conceptual artist and designer. In his practice he deals with our presence in a (post-)digital era, where technological acceleration is juxtaposed with our physicality and mental state.

His artworks integrate interactive technologies with traditional rituals and artifacts, drawing upon the Confucian culture and Buddhist philosophies inherent in his Korean heritage.

With 3D-printed prayer beads, AR sculptures and breath-controlled light installations, he brings the physical experience of the viewer to the fore, enabling them to become an integral part of the work.

Thus in a time of political division and cultural fragmentation, Hojin Kang's works deeply explore the transgenerational and immaterial qualities that universally interconnect us as human beings.

His work has been exhibited at Stockwerk Projekt Weimar (2024), Kassel Dokfest Lounge (2023), Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken (2022) and Kunstverein Ulm (2018), among others. He collaborates closely with curators, designers, artists, programmers and craftsmen in his projects.