Li-An Hong
Currently based in Cologne, Germany / Seoul, South Korea
Visual Artist, working across 2D/3D Visualization, Graphic Images & Motion Graphics

I create visual contents that explore ambiguity, spatiality, and perception through graphic languages.

My practice primarily revolves around 3D graphics as a medium, particularly for its potential in layering and spatial placement through the z-axis. I’m drawn to the depth that multiple layers can generate—not only in composition, but also in meaning.

Much of my interest lies in questioning the stereotypical roles of images, and slightly bending the visual expectations we hold. People often describe my work as "abstract"—a term I don’t strictly define, but rather use as an entry point into the unstable, hard-to-describe spaces where image, concept, and perception overlap.

I enjoy constructing and decorating square frames. To me, the square is not an end-point, but a modular unit—a vertex in a larger grid where images are interconnected. The boundary of one frame hints at another, and this suggests a narrative structure made of surfaces, layers, and transitions.

I am particularly curious about how visual content is perceived, circulated, and consumed today—especially the novelty fatigue in online visual culture. I often ask:

What kind of images feel “new”?
How long does that sense of novelty last?
How is “value” created around images in a culture of saturation?

These questions inform my attempts to visualize ephemerality, spectacle, and the lifespan of graphic aesthetics.

Lately, I’ve been exploring ways to embed narrative into graphic images, especially through speculative and conceptual design methodologies. I'm interested in the spectrum between aesthetic novelty and narrative reception, and I aim to create images that move along that continuum—resisting fixed meaning, while suggesting possibilities.

About Assembly-grid


Assembly-grid
began through critical research and experimentation in digital graphics and image aesthetics.

Since beginning 3D graphic work in earnest in 2023, I have developed questions about current digital image production methods and their aesthetic tendencies. I discovered that self-replicating and standardized image production methods operate in close connection with the systems of the visual arts industry.

Through the process of creating graphic works via various experiments, I began exploring the possibilities of new visual languages that break away from conventional aesthetics. Through these works, two core themes emerged: an exploration of post-industriality in popularly used consumer-oriented graphic technologies and the possibilities of alternative graphic aesthetics.

In seeking to explore these themes, I recognized the limitations of existing social media platforms' linear structures and determined that a space capable of more expanded discourse and multi-layered approaches to graphics was necessary. Accordingly, I established an independent research platform that could comprehensively address research in digital image aesthetics, critical design theory, and contemporary visual culture.

This website functions as an intellectual space that archives these exploratory processes and connects related theory and practice, while simultaneously emerging from the necessity for an experimental space that visualizes and shares the 'process' of methodologies for creating de-standardized graphic images.

어셈블리그리드


어셈블리그리드는 디지털 그래픽과 이미지 미학에 대한 비판적 연구와 실험을 통해 시작되었습니다.

2023년부터 3D 그래픽 작업을 중점적으로 진행하며, 현재의 디지털 이미지 생산 방식과 그 미학적 경향에 대한 의문을 품게 되었습니다. 특히 자가 복제적이고 규격화된 이미지 생산 방식이 시각 예술 산업의 시스템과 긴밀하게 연결되어 작동하고 있음을 발견했습니다.

여러 실험을 통한 그래픽 작업을 제작하는 과정에서, 기존의 관습적 미감에서 벗어난 새로운 시각적 언어의 가능성을 탐구하게 되었습니다. 이러한 작업들을 통해 두 가지 핵심 주제가 부각되었습니다: 대중적으로 통용되는 소비중심적 그래픽 기술의 탈산업성에 대한 탐구대안적 그래픽 미학의 가능성입니다.

이 주제를 탐구하고자 하며 기존의 소셜 미디어 플랫폼이 가진 선형적 구조의 한계를 인식하고, 그래픽에 대한 보다 확장된 담론과 다층적 접근이 가능한 공간이 필요하다고 판단했습니다. 이에 따라 디지털 이미지 미학, 비판적 디자인 이론, 동시대 시각문화에 대한 연구를 통합적으로 다룰 수 있는 독립적인 리서치 플랫폼을 구축하게 되었습니다.

본 웹사이트는 이러한 탐구 과정을 아카이빙하고, 관련 이론과 실천을 연결하는 지적 공간으로 기능함과 동시에, 탈규격화된 그래픽 이미지를 만드는 방법 연구 과정을 가시화하고 공유하는 실험적 공간의 필요성에서 출발했습니다.

© 2025 Li-An Hong. All rights reserved. Assemblygrid includes works by Li-An Hong as well as third-party content. Rights to third-party content belong to their creators and are credited where applicable. Content is presented for research and archival purposes only. Contact info​@​assemblygrid.​com to request credit or removal.
Supported by Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln
Designed and Programmed by Basics09