Exhibition text by Hannah Hornby
The Flat Manual, Yeonjin Seo’s debut UK solo exhibition, functions as a guide to see the world through Seo’s eyes. The collection of works explore the occurrence of slippage, glitch, detachment and repetition which occur within a system. Embracing the misbehaving overlaps of screens, images and objects within physical spaces, Seo repositions our interactions in the world by avoiding hierarchical structures and systems. Displayed are eight works which playfully reimagine reality as screen based encounters, interface interrogations and everyday life in the form of a sticker. The works exist as flat events which invite the viewer to explore depth and reality through digital interface images and participatory AR encounters.
Sky Through the Mirror Side (2026) and Star Patches (2026), respond to altering perceptions of technology. While photographing a leaf on the ground, Seo accidentally switched to the front camera, capturing instead an image of the sky. It felt as though the sky rather than the camera had flipped beneath her feet. Switching between camera perspectives resulted in the sky and ground compressing together within the device until the boundary between above and below, front and back, disappeared.
Seo investigates the concept of 2D sculptures behaving 3D. Through cutting, scoring, and assembling flat surfaces to create thin metal structures, a suggestion that the world is composed of layers that can be applied and removed like stickers, is presented. Complexity and materiality become surface-level experiences. Similarly, to the city's structure which consists of layers of MDF, panels, and films that can be easily replaced and dismantled. We are becoming increasingly accustomed to visual symbols designed for effortless consumption, recognising outward features rather than context. Such flattening makes experiences feel light and immediate, yet also strips away depth and complexity, leading us to understand the world more superficially.
Through the reproduction and recontextualisation of images shared on social media. Seo explores this simulacra, in Aglio o Olio (2026), after noticing a friend repeatedly post the same pasta dish, shot from the same angle, on his instagram story. Aglio o Olio (2026) exists as an image-like surface referencing ingredients and translating the sensation of ‘eating an image’ into a physical presence, where the flavours and taste appear sharper and more intense. We start to question which event is more significant, the reality or the copy?
The Triple Tree (2024), invites viewers to experience a falling apple through sound, AR imagery, and video. The simulated apple never physically reaches the viewer, instead the work plays with sensory bodily responses to re-create the moment in which the apple falls. 2D, 3D and 4D perspectives of the world appear as one, acknowledging the complex ever shifting multi- dimensional world we inhabit. New media and everyday life is muddled together within the gallery, the digital and analog blur in front of you forming a smooth shiny highly saturated flat perspective of our world.
“The logic of selection, extraction, and duplication extends beyond the screen, turning the surrounding environment into a field of detachable surfaces. Drawn to images that can be easily lifted, separated, and reapplied. In this world, everything becomes something that can be pressed, selected, and peeled away.”
** The Flat Manual can also be understood through this logic.
Yeonjin Seo (b. 1998) is an artist based in London and Seoul. She is currently an MA candidate in Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art and received a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2022. Seo held a solo exhibition, Red Apple Tree Isolated on White Background, at Cheongju Art Studio, Cheongju (2024).
Selected two-person exhibitions include Sudden Death at Chamber, Seoul (2025); Negative Space: Draw and Leave at Handok Museum, Seoul (2025); Drag & Drop at SpaceUooyoung, Seoul (2024); pull, SHOP! at Onsu- gonggan, Seoul (2023); and Bench and Broccoli at Geueotteon, Cheongju (2022). Seo was shortlisted for the Global Design Graduate Show (ARTSTHREAD × GUCCI) in 2022 and has participated in residencies including Cheongju Art Studio (2024–2025) and Global Young Creatives Residency, Jeju (2023).
