The work of Jeongeun Han (b. 1998) explores the feeling of isolation that is becoming an ever-present problem in modern society, despite the fact that we have never been more “connected.” Living life through a screen we are constantly bombarded by images and other visual stimuli. Thousands of images race past us, devoid of context, further adding to the feeling of disconnection and exclusion, leading to a rise in stress, anxiety and other mental health challenges amongst today’s youth as they constantly feel on the outside, looking in. Han’s work shows this, commenting on current society while also providing a way that she can deal with her own feelings and health challenges. Her landscape images are at first mysterious, they seem familiar but at the same time unfamiliar, an amalgamation of multiple images, compressed together into a single image they are ethereal, almost ghostly glimpses of the real world. “I collect photos and overlap them in multiple layers to create an assemblage of captured images, moments that are sometimes unclear and volatile. The work is like a letter to all things that will soon disappear, like a burning flame or melting snow, a landscape of lost senses.” The fleeting nature of these images is heightened by Han’s use of airbrush as her primary method of creating work, with half of the paint she directs towards the canvas drifting away in the process of creation. This combination of familiarity and strangeness challenges our perceptions of not only how we look at the world but how that view can distort our ability to see what is really going on. “I go beyond general emotions and explore fleeting, subtle emotions, all of which we experience in life. I value emotions. We live our lives crying, laughing, loving, opposing emotions and experiences that blend together to create us, and although society encourages us to hide our sadder emotions, I believe that by embracing them fully we will actually improve our lives.”