Illustration: Authorial Practice MA student selected for New Contemporaries

Illustration: Authorial Practice MA student Dageong Han has been selected as a featured artist in a renowned organisation that supports emerging artists.

New Contemporaries, which has been running since 1949, is an organisation that supports emergent art practice in the UK. Each year, around 30 artists are selected, to receive support and promotion, ultimately ensuring the long-term sustainability of emerging practices.

As well as being included in the 2024 exhibition, Dageong will have access to a range of opportunities, including mentoring, talks, and workshops through the New Contemporaries development programme. Her work will also be shown, alongside the other selected artists’, in the Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2024 exhibition in Plymouth from 28 September to 7 December 2024.

We recently chatted to Dageong about being selected, her work, and her plans for the future.

Congratulations on being selected for New Contemporaries! Was it a good feeling to get more industry recognition for your work?

I feel excited and honoured to be part of New Contemporaries 2024! The application process was in two rounds; firstly, we were asked to submit three works with short artist statements for each, and secondly we submitted longer writings with detailed photo shots and videos of the works.

Nowadays, my work is very personal. When I thought I was retreating into myself, letting out my inner struggles, I now realise that I might have been getting closer to the outer world by telling stories of myself. This is a great encouragement for me to keep going as an artist and as a person with ordinary and extraordinary problems of my own.

Talk us through some of your favourite pieces.

My drawings are autobiographical, addressing mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, paranoia, worries, and overthinking. This is a drawing I did while struggling to find a place to stay in London. Is London, and life, bigger than me? I draw as fast as I can to vomit out my inner thoughts and feelings that often don't seem to belong anywhere. I navigate the question, ‘why am I different? Am I different?’ It is a question of my cognitive reality that I would like to reimagine with the act of drawing. My sketchbook is my shelter and medium to the world. In this two-page sketchbook ink drawing, you are looking at my blue body in bed with my dark hair strands scattered everywhere on a sleepless night.

In this self-portrait drawing of me panicking on the floor, I wrote words with a brush: 'I'm so scared of tomorrow, of next week, and of next month.' I often find myself overwhelmed by everything happening around me. I wonder who can help me when I am crying on the floor in panic. Before I rise from the ground to help myself, I can always enjoy capturing an image in my sketchbook for a moment. I draw lines and fill colours with a brush, filling a page. I wish I could fill another page tomorrow, next week, or next month.

In this black, white, and yellow drawing, I ended up with an image of a female figure vomiting light or something yellow in darkness. There is always a new worry, meaning it is my mind that creates fear.

Where do you tend to draw your inspiration from?

My family, friends, strangers, and my worries. Also, language and how it sounds to me, and the world as I perceive it with my body. My parents have also recently started taking a poetry recital class in South Korea, and they recommended a poem called Grass by Kim Su-young to me, which I draw a lot from.

What are the most important skills you learned on the Illustration: Authorial Practice MA that you employ in your work?

The most valuable skill I learned on my MA course is to embrace and enjoy experimentation. I learned that there's nothing wrong with finding joy in creating art and expanding my practice in new directions. I was also inspired by my peers to write short stories and poetry.

Who would you recommend the course to?

I recommend the course to anyone who wants to explore new projects in an encouraging environment. It is a unique course where the tutors offer warm insights not only into comics, graphic novels, book design, and picture books, but also into drawing, painting, sculpture, and other forms of contemporary art that speak to us through storytelling, regardless of the medium.

What other projects do you have coming up?

I’m participating in the Copeland Park residency based in Holdrons Arcade in Peckham, London, for six weeks before a showcase in September. Since I’m going to have a small studio of my own for the first time in two years, I’m excited to have the chance to expand from my lovely sketchbook world and work on a larger scale.

External Links
Dageong’s website and Instagram.