Heena Kim is a visual artist, a mother of two, and the founder of Beyond Space, an initiative dedicated to bringing people together through participatory art and creative programmes. Hayoung Kim works between South Korea and the UK, balancing her role as a professor in Korea with family life in London. For both artists, working across borders, schedules, and responsibilities has shaped not only how they live, but also how they make art.

Like many artist-mothers, they have experienced pauses and interruptions in their careers following the birth of their children. Rather than viewing these limitations as obstacles, this collaborative project explores how artistic practice can continue - quietly, persistently, and meaningfully - within limited time, space, and physical distance.

The works-on-paper project functions as a form of visual communication that allows freedom from physical proximity. Through an ongoing exchange, the artists share images, ideas, and responses, allowing their practices to develop through dialogue rather than direct collaboration. The process encourages both artists to reflect on their motivations and to challenge their own ways of working.

Dialogue I and Dialogue II take the form of a relay: one artist begins a work using elements of the other’s visual language, responding when time and opportunity allow. The work is then sent to the other artist, who creates a new piece inspired by its aesthetic qualities - both an answer and a new beginning for the next exchange.

This project is both a reflection on motherhood and a celebration of artistic continuity, demonstrating how creative practice can endure and evolve, even when time is fragmented and life is full.

In Conversation; Freedom and Distance, Space and Time

Dialogue I: 12-16 December 2022, AMP Gallery, London

Dialogue II: 2 July 2024, Streatham Space Project, London