Won Ju Lim: Casting

Haines Gallery is pleased to present Casting, an exhibition of new and recent works by multimedia artist Won Ju Lim (b. 1968, Gwangju, South Korea; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA). This is Lim’s first solo exhibition with Haines Gallery, and her second in San Francisco, following the successful Raycraft is Dead at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in 2015. One can cast a spell, a net, a form, a vote, a shadow. Casting echoes the multiple meanings of the word, and develops from the artist’s interest in the life and works of Marcel Proust, building upon a range of literary and cinematic sources that were inspired by the French writer. The exhibition comprises a series of lightboxes, paintings, and sculptures, and also sees Lim expanding her practice to include filmmaking for the first time. Five new works from Lim’s Broken Painting series depict French actress Sylvie Testud, who starred in Chantal Akerman’s 2000 film La Captive, based on Proust’s The Prisoner. These works examine the notion of fragmentary identity and relativity of selfhood, as portraits of the actress in various career-defining roles were literally torn apart and pieced back together. According to Proust, “Our social personality is a creation of the minds of others.” The essence of an individual is a slippery thing, always in flux, as people, places, and objects cast their presence on top of one another, leaving behind traces and residues that create a palimpsest.