Ha Chong-Hyun is a pioneering member of the Korean Dansaekhwa, or “Monochrome painting,” movement, dedicating his career to engage with discourses around institutional critique and advocating for the Korean avant-garde. In his hallmark Conjunction series, Ha Chong-Hyun pushes thick paint through the backs of loosely woven hemp canvases, creating a textured surface that is entirely unique to his practice. The term “conjunction” signifies the unmediated meeting of the artist’s two most important elements–his method and his materials–and has been a decades-long project. Ha first began making his Conjunction series in the 1970s in post-war Korea, where his use of hemp, a robust material commonly used for transporting goods during the war and subsequent reconstruction, distinguished his work from the traditional Western canvas.

In Conjunction 87-8, Ha’s use of custom-made tools to manipulate the already-applied paint results in short, staccato strokes—both vertical and horizontal—that evoke a sense of rhythmic disarray, emphasizing the dynamic interplay of each individual mark on the canvas. Critic Nakahara Yusuke described these marks as “fingerlike,” highlighting their tactile quality and reinforcing the intimate connection between the artist’s gestures and the canvas. The exposed raw edges of the canvas remain as raw hemp, serving as a natural frame that contrasts with the expressive quality of the gestural strokes within.

40 HO