Artist Ayuna 9th solo exhibition Seashell

 Darkness often operates more powerfully than light.

Moving toward light requires will and choice, but slipping into darkness demands little resolve. Despair seeps in easily, and people slowly grow accustomed to it. That state of familiarity can even feel like comfort at times. Because there's no need to go further, no need to try harder.

Humans always stand on that boundary. They constantly sway between the desire to look toward the light and the desire to remain in the darkness they've already grown accustomed to. Darkness is fast, simple, and tempting, but moving toward the good is always slow and difficult. The hard-won balance of the mind crumbles easily at the slightest crack. The fact that one must rise again and again sometimes wears humans down.

Yet within us remains a faint but distinct sense of what is right. The will to move toward goodness stems not from grand conviction, but from small, unyielding resolutions.

When a clam senses danger, it closes its shell tightly. Outwardly, it may seem like retreat or stagnation, but this closing is not surrender—it is a form of preservation. Even in the raging sea, the shell does not easily corrode, and within its closed space, the life inside is quietly protected.

The human heart resembles this. We sometimes close ourselves off in the face of wounds, violence, and an unreasonable world. This is not defeat, but an attitude to avoid collapse. To avoid being swept away in the chain where anger leads to hatred, and hatred to further violence, we must pause and stand still for a moment.

This exhibition contemplates the form of that quiet endurance. Choosing the path of goodness is not always made in bright moments; it also exists as an attitude of self-preservation to avoid collapse within the darkest times.

The seashell is precisely the embodiment of such a heart.

Though it may appear crouched, it is not surrender but protection; though it may seem silent, it is not collapse. Like a hard shell that does not easily corrode even in darkness, within the human heart remains a will that refuses to break. And perhaps, within that closed time, we are preparing for the moment when it will open again.

March 30 - April 26, 2026

11:00 - 22:00

20-25, Sanbon-ro 323beon-gil, Gunpo-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea

Betaclub