Yang-ha 양하

Heavy Reveries 헤비 리버리 2025

Installation view: PADA 51 (2025, PADA Studios)

How to Build a Reverie_4, 2025, bricks found at a polluted park and built at Manutenção Militar de Lisboa (I and chat guess), tiles from a closed snack shop, PU foam, wood, 249×36×38 cm
How to Build a Reverie_5, 2025, bricks found at a polluted park and built at Manutenção Militar de Lisboa (I and chat guess), tiles from a closed snack shop, PU foam, pencil, wood, 248×33×33 cm
How to Build a Reverie_6, 2025, bricks found at a polluted park and built at Manutenção Militar de Lisboa (I and chat guess), tiles from a closed snack shop, PU foam, pencil, wood, 145×32×34 cm

A Drawing for Blowing Up_38, 2025, microplastics collected at a polluted park, gouache and acrylic on canvas, 30×30 cm

My Dearest Love_7, 2021, oil and acrylic color on canvas, 90×90 cm

My Dearest Love_5, 2021, stickers, oil and acrylic color on canvas, 80×80 cm

A Drawing for Blowing Up_38, 2025, microplastics collected at a polluted park, gouache and acrylic on canvas, 30×30 cm

A Drawing for Blowing Up_39, 2025, microplastics collected at a park, glass found at a polluted park, gouache and acrylic on canvas, 30× 30 cm

How to Build a Reverie_7, 2025, a part of a supermarket cart, a tile bought from a flea market, bricks found at a polluted park and built at Manutenção Militar de Lisboa (I and chat guess), glass found at a polluted park, PU foam, metal, 47×42×17 cm

How to Build a Reverie_8, 2025, a part of a supermarket cart, a tile bought from a flea market, bricks found at a polluted park and built at Manutenção Militar de Lisboa (I and chat guess), glass found at a polluted park, metal, 47×42×17 cm

How to Build a Reverie_9, 2025, a part of a supermarket cart, a tile bought from a flea market, bricks found at polluted park and built at Manutenção Militar de Lisboa (I and chat guess), glass found at a polluted park, PU foam, metal, 46.5×42×17 cm

During a residency at PADA in Portugal, Yang-ha collected discarded bricks, tiles, and ceramic fragments from a polluted industrial site once active during a dictatorship.

Using these materials, she produced column-shaped painting sculptures. Some bricks were engraved with sentences, suggesting traces of previous use. Through on-site research and speculative dialogue with AI, these fragments were approached as if they originated from a now-vanished munitions factory across the river.

Combined with polyurethane foam and drawings recalling smoke or explosions, the materials are reassembled into fictional structures. Rather than restoring historical facts, the work constructs a form of imaginary archaeology, where physical remnants carry unresolved narratives and emotional residue.

international residency April–May 2025, PADA Studios Rua 42, n2, Baía do Tejo Parque Industrial do Barreiro 2831-904 Barreiro, PO box 5092, Portugal
Curated by Catarina Real, Sponsored by Mondriaan fonds, Photo: Ricardo Gonçalves