Hwang Seontae playfully designs spaces that exist in the absence of color, exploring the significance and materiality of light projection and how much of it matters in a composition. Seontae was born in South Korea in 1972. He studied fine art at Kyunghee University in South Korea and completed his postgraduate training in sculpture and glass art at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle in Germany. The scenes crafted through multiple layers of printed and etched glass reveal empty homes with a feeling of comfort completely erased when not lit.

The light purposefully breathes life into Seontae’s world, alleviating the white ‘light-box’ from its eerie and somewhat lonely spaces. His mastery of glass and how light is reflected or hidden from such material is evident in the manner in which he is able to cast a man-made light to imitate the natural properties of the sunlight and its cast shadows. Through this application of light, Seontae articulates the imagined scene and contrasts the abandoned nature of the monochromatic room with the hints of subtle color in the exterior glimpse of landscape and foliage.

His work takes the form of the 'light box', constructed from layers of printed and etched glass, depicting cooly delineated, contemporary interiors. The box has a self-contained light source which articulates the imagined scene. Sunlight enters through windows, casting pools and patterns of illumination and projecting shadowed forms across the silent spaces. In this mostly monochromatic world, there are hints of subtle colour in the exterior glimpses of landscape and foliage. The sun's rays energise and bring life to the scene. Rooms are deserted but not abandoned; they are furnished and maintained. There is a sense of recent departure and/or imminent return.

If these images express absence, they are also about the expectation of presence. There is a palpable sense of anticipation. They hint at the delayed pleasure of inhabiting such a calm, controlled space and a desire for the ordered, familiar simplicity of domestic structure. This atmosphere of expectation is also theatrical; something may be about to happen. The dramatic space is clearly defined and the props are in place. This may be an interval before action continues.

Whatever our conjecture about these pieces, their overriding sense is of pause, stillness and suspension. They articulate a space for contemplation. The artist has made a stage-set for the action of the sun, it's rays lighting the gloom of the man made interior, bringing a moment of clarity and awareness.