"In the Forest of Himmapan" marks the first solo exhibition in Thailand by South Korean artist Kim Doyeon. The works were developed during her three-month residency in Chiang Mai as part of the SAC Residency programme, in collaboration with A Lounge Gallery, Seoul.

While living in Thailand, the artist gradually absorbed local culture, mythology, and the traces of stories embedded in everyday life. Through wandering among temples, caves, manuscripts, textiles, and ritual spaces, she chose not to collect or retell myths in a linear way. Instead, she lingered with forms, rhythms, and presences, allowing time, repetition, and attentive observation to shape her perception. These experiences are woven into an imagined landscape that emerges slowly through the act of painting and printmaking.

In this exhibition, Himmapan is not understood as a physical place, but as a threshold space—where humans and non-humans, this world and the next, myth and lived reality continuously flow into and overlap with one another. It is a realm in which beings temporarily set aside fixed identities and exist in a state that has not yet solidified into a single meaning. Himmapan thus becomes an open borderland: a forest of in-betweenness, where all forms remain in motion and transformation.

This body of work begins with an invitation for the beings of Himmapan to appear in shifting forms, before dispersing once again. Humans and birds, animals and deities, water and land, bodies and language coexist in layered states, never fully separated from one another. Rather than being gathered into a single narrative, these presences emerge momentarily, at different rhythms and distances. They are not fixed as symbols, nor arranged into a complete narrative structure, but remain suspended—open to interpretation.

The artist does not attempt to impose meaning upon this world. Instead, she positions herself as a human observer, approaching it with gratitude for the opportunity to encounter a forest shaped within another culture and another temporal horizon. She spends long periods copying and repeatedly drawing Himmapan beings found in Thai temple art. Through repetition and sustained looking, drawing becomes a way of listening—an intimate encounter with the traces of time these beings have carried. It is a process akin to conversation without words.

In her more recent works, these beings begin to appear and fade within the artist’s everyday life in Chiang Mai, without being consciously summoned. This reflects the fundamental nature of Himmapan itself: a realm in which beings do not occupy fixed positions, but move continuously through relationships. These qualities settle into the artist’s own body, like a gentle current moving with her breath. As a result, the forms in her work do not exist as fully formed characters from myth, but as traces before myth takes shape, or remnants that have slipped free from it—unstable presences moving across bodies and temporalities.

Passing through Himmapan has led the artist to recognise the profound differences in how myths and narratives function, even within shared East Asian cultural contexts. This experience becomes a foundation for moving beyond a singular cultural perspective towards a more open worldview. Looking ahead, the artist intends to travel through myths from different cultures and regions, exploring how humans understand life and death, self and other, and the possibilities of coexistence. Himmapan stands as the point of departure for this journey—not as a site for collecting myths, but as a process of cultivating a way of encountering and living alongside them.

In the Forest of Himmapan is not a complete story, but a record of passing through a forest. The period spent dwelling within this liminal space has generated a contemplative archive—of people, animals, light, and vegetation encountered and left behind. These memories are continually revisited, opening a space in which identity may momentarily dissolve, and a quieter, more intimate awareness of existence can emerge.

"In the Forest of Himmapan"
Solo Exhibition by Kim Doyeon
12 February – 18 April 2026
2nd Floor, SAC Gallery

Opening Reception
Thursday, 12 February 2026
6.30 pm
Free admission