Super-Natural, (2011/2016, Han Seok Hyun)

Environmental issues are on the mind of Han Seok Hyun (born 1975, Seoul), who collects products in Seoul supermarkets to form green landscapes that evoke the city’s mountainous terrain. The hills formed in “Super-Natural” (2011/2016) provide a sense of calm and peace, but some of the materials within them—collected both in Seoul and Boston, at the MFA—may be greener in color than they claim to be in substance. The installation points to citizens’ appetite for consumer products, while at the same time reminding viewers of the equally pressing—and sometimes forgotten—need to connect with the natural world, which is especially rare in growing cities. After the exhibition, the objects from Boston will be recycled or donated, while the objects from Seoul will return there to become part of another artwork.

See it in “Megacities Asia” through July 17, 2016: http://bit.ly/1IQc68i #mfaMEGA