Bongsu Park, a Korean artist, expands on the sensory approach of her 2024 performance Mirror. In her new series 2025 Janhyang, she weaves together scent, plant materials, and handcrafted wooden frames to create sculptural paintings that evoke memory through multiple senses. At the heart of each work, a ceramic vessel contains a fragrance distilled from elements within the painting itself, inviting the viewer into a shared space of memory that is at once personal and familiar.
This cycle also explores the phenomenon of reverberation. The term refers both to the lingering scent that remains in a space and to the echo of sound that continues after its source has ceased. More than a description of a physical effect, 2025 Janhyang, evokes the sensory traces that endure within space and time, suggesting both the evidence of something that once existed and the emotional resonance it leaves behind.
Each artwork is accompanied by a bespoke fragrance created by Park in the process of making the painting. Drawing inspiration from both her personal memories and the completed work, the scent takes shape through her engagement with plants that act as sensory triggers. These encounters stir recollections that become embedded in the fragrance itself. Conceived as a quiet bridge between the artist’s memories and the viewer’s experience, the scent invites us to form our own rituals and connections.
Like memory, scent is transient fading, shifting, and evolving over time. Park provides the formula on a label, so when the original fragrance has dissipated, it can be recreated using her notes. Alternatively, one may choose to compose a new one, layering fresh experiences over what once was, just as memory does.
Bongsu Park is a Korean multidisciplinary artist based in London. Her practice spans sculpture, installation, performance, video, painting, and audience participation, engaging with themes of memory, dreams, birth, death, and the cyclical nature of life. Deeply rooted in Korean cultural traditions and philosophical inquiry, her work creates immersive, meditative spaces that invite reflection and foster collective experience.
Park studied Fine Art at Sangmyung University in Seoul and the École des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, before completing her MFA at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Her work has been presented internationally at institutions and events including Zona Maco, Mexico City and FIAC, Paris, The Moving Image Istanbul, LOOP Barcelona, Camden Arts Centre, Gallery Rosenfeld, and The Coronet Theatre in London. She has also participated in international residencies and received support from Arts Council Korea and other cultural institutions.
These new works mark a turning point in Park’s practice and will be presented by Gallery Rosenfeld in September at The Armory Show in New York.
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Newsletter:
Courtesy and ©Bongsu Park and Renée Pfister Art & Gallery Consultancy 2025.
Video:
Courtesy and ©Bongsu Park, music by: https://www.bensound.com artist: Theatre Of Delays, license code: ZXIHL7YD6OC2AFLT and Renée Pfister Art & Gallery Consultancy, with the assistance of Gözde Altun, 2025. All rights reserved.