On 23 May 2025, Hermès unveiled its latest artist windows at the Liat Towers boutique. "Three Columns" is conceived by Seoul-based artist Jimin Chae, whose works blur the lines between fantasy and reality through two-dimensional landscape paintings featuring disparate and often curious elements. You'd see a traffic cone seemingly floating mid-air in one, and animals positioned as though they've chanced upon a strange scene in others.
While Chae's works look incredibly crisp and almost print-like, they're actually painted by hand—as we discovered through an art workshop led by the artist himself. The fact alone makes him the perfect collaborator in line with Hermès' working theme for the year, Drawn to Craft.
We chat with Chae to find out more about his artistic process, how he approached his second collaboration with Hermès, and if the inclusion of horses and the use of a distinct Hermès orange was him manifesting the opportunity to work with the Maison one day.
ESQUIRE SINGAPORE: Firstly, thank you for the very insightful workshop. You seem very comfortable teaching, and as I understand, you also do teach at an art school. Was teaching art something that you thought you’d do? How did that come about?
JIMIN CHAE: I have been teaching students at art academies since my early twenties. For art majors, it was one of the most accessible part-time jobs that allowed us to make use of our skills, and I naturally began this work upon the recommendation of my mentor. Over time, I eventually came to teach at Yewon School, a middle school specialised in the arts. Now, I approach this role with a strong sense of responsibility, aiming to instil the right mindset and attitude in students who are just beginning to pursue the arts as their chosen field.
ESQ: How did you come to develop your art style?
JC: In my late twenties, after graduating from university and beginning my journey as an artist, I remember striving to express the visual tension and coexistence of "flatness" and "spatiality" within a single canvas. In the process of constructing an imaginary space born from the artist's imagination on the materially flat, white surface of the canvas, I neither chose one attribute over the other nor sought to create visual confusion. Instead, I aimed to let the two qualities coexist in an ambiguous relationship within the same frame. This pursuit of the vague boundary between two coexisting elements has become central to my artistic approach.
In my more recent work, I have extended this exploration beyond flatness and space to include the ambiguous boundaries between reality and unreality, nature and artificiality.
ESQ: Your work involves creating a scene out of disparate elements, almost like a collage, and you paint them at times referencing images that you took yourself. What goes behind conceptualising each work? Is there a specific idea before you even begin putting the elements together?
JC: My work often begins by constructing incomplete or imperfect structures within an indeterminate space that resembles a natural field. In this process, I use simple 3D software to control light, shadow, and vanishing points, composing a highly calculated and artificially drafted scene. Within this scene, I incorporate objects, figures, and animals—mostly drawn from photographs I’ve taken myself—arranging them in a way that appears harmonious yet subtly unnatural, adding a sense of ambiguous relationships to the composition.
Only after going through these work-planning processes, I move on to painting. As you might sense from this description, for me, composition is not an emotional process—it is a highly rational one that focuses on the formal qualities of the subject. More specifically, I construct the image based on visual elements such as shape, color, directionality, and movement.
ESQ: The colours that you use are often vivid and rich—they’re very rarely moody or even sombre. Why is that?
JC: As mentioned, the process of composition in my work involves very little emotional input. To be honest, choosing colours is still more difficult for me than working with form. However, when the colours appear vivid and rich, it is usually because I am using them intentionally—to emphasise the presence of certain structures or objects placed within the scene. Even now, I rarely feel complete confidence when it comes to colour; in fact, it remains an experimental aspect of my practice.
ESQ: You first worked with Hermès for the Maison’s windows in Shanghai in 2023. But even before that, you’ve utilised the Hermès orange (and horses too) in quite a number of your previous works. Is there a reason why you gravitate towards that shade of orange?
JC: In the early stages of my practice, the sky served as a key motif through which I explored the tension and coexistence between flatness and spatiality. As a result, many of my early works—and even some recent ones—feature the sky or flat images symbolizing the sky, making blue tones, especially sky blue, dominant in my palette. Over time, as I began to reflect more on the use of diverse colors, I looked for a tone that would contrast with the blue hues I frequently used. That led me to orange. To this day, sky blue and orange remain the colours I feel most confident using in my work.
Before discussing horses, it's more important to explain why I started painting animals in the first place. In my previous paintings, the use of human figures was quite cold and rational. Within the constructed scenes, the figures would face in different directions, never meeting the viewer’s gaze—instead, they turned away or had their faces obscured. This was a deliberate device to prevent any one figure from being perceived as the “main character.” The characters were removed, leaving only their gestures behind.
However, I began to feel that this approach was making the already cool and distant atmosphere of the painting feel even more detached from the viewer. That’s when I first began painting wild animals such as mallards, horses, and reindeer. In my works, animals face the viewer and seem to acknowledge their presence. Compared to human figures, animals are inherently more emotional subjects. This, of course, is another example of the work attitude of pursuing the "ambiguous boundary" I mentioned earlier.
ESQ: “Three Columns” is your latest work for Hermès. What have you learnt from the first collaboration that you’ve perhaps put into practice for this particular installation?
JC: To put it simply, I approached the given space at the Liat Tower with the mindset: “Let the flatness remain even flatter, and the three-dimensional even more spatial.” This attempt to create a more active and extreme visual contrast stemmed from what I learned during my first collaboration in Shanghai. Ultimately, it all comes down to the same question I’ve always grappled with in my painting practice: how can the themes I constantly explore on a flat surface be translated and visualized within a real, physical space?
ESQ: You’ve mentioned that a lot of the elements in “Three Columns” represent how the Hermès continues to challenge tradition with modernity. What was the conceptualisation process like for “Three Columns”?
JC: I remember that when I was first approached for the collaboration, I was given a presentation on how the brand reinterprets and utilizes its traditions in a contemporary context. What left a particularly strong impression on me was the story of how Robert Dumas found inspiration in an anchor chain he came across by the seaside—an observation that eventually led to the design of Chaîne d’ancre. What struck me even more was how this single motif has undergone countless reinterpretations and variations over the past 80 years, continuing to be reinvented in diverse materials and forms. This ability to recognize design value in something seemingly trivial, to create from it, and to keep that legacy alive through constant modern reinterpretation—that, to me, defines the identity of this brand.
I don’t usually approach the canvas with a grand narrative or predetermined meaning. My initial idea was simple: to sketch out the cube-like space of the Liat Tower’s windows in my sketchbook, and loosely draw within it while staying true to the theme Drawn to Craft. I drew three diagonal lines falling across the space, which became the "Three Columns". These slanted lines eventually took the form of classical Greek columns—not as an intentional symbol or mythological reference, but rather as a way to introduce a formal tension into the space.
However, as the work progressed, these columns began to take on new meanings. They started to suggest a flow of time—a structure that hints at tradition, the present, and the future as possibility. The objects arranged around the columns both reference the brand’s heritage and contribute to a subtly fantastical atmosphere, blurring the boundary between reality and imagination.
Modern imaginings built upon the solid structure of tradition—that, to me, reflects the creative spirit that Hermès consistently pursues. "Three Columns" is my personal interpretation and expression of that philosophy.
ESQ: There’s a lot of play between reality and fantasy in “Three Columns” and I think it echoes a lot about how fashion and luxury are viewed as well. What is perhaps an exciting part about working with a luxury maison like Hermès?
JC: That’s an interesting point. If a luxury brand like Hermès seeks to collaborate with a contemporary artist like myself, it’s likely because they expect me to approach the empty space of the window in the same way I approach a blank canvas—through the lens of my own process and perspective.
While fashion brands and contemporary artists may not be far apart within the broad realm of “art,” their fundamental purposes are quite different. Fashion, at its core, is built upon functionality and beauty for the wearer. Art, on the other hand, often leans toward leaving room for ambiguity—for emotions and thoughts that resist immediate interpretation. That’s why I find the tension and subtle dissonance that arise when these two worlds—with such different directionalities—come together so fascinating.
ESQ: You seem very open to others’ creative ideas and artistry. But how do you handle criticisms of your own work?
JC: Exactly. Even within the worlds I create on canvas, I rarely construct a specific narrative—instead, I leave space for the viewer’s imagination to unfold. My pursuit of ambiguous boundaries may, to some, seem like an evasive or passive stance. I understand that such an approach could be open to criticism, and I remain receptive to those perspectives with humility. However, despite that openness, I hold a strong conviction and a certain stubbornness when it comes to the methods and attitudes I’ve developed over many years of evolving practice.
ESQ: What do you hope people will feel or think about when they see “Three Columns”?
JC: Like all of my previous works, this piece was meant not to convey a specific narrative, but to remain an open space filled with diverse meanings shaped by the viewer’s interpretation and experience. I hope that when people encounter "Three Columns", they each bring their own stories to mind, pausing for a moment to reflect or feel emotions. I don’t believe that a clear, definitive answer from the artist is necessary in this process. On the contrary, I hope the work becomes a place where multiple interpretations and responses coexist, allowing each person to discover their own unique meaning within it.
ESQ: What are you working on next?
JC: Recently, including my last two collaborations, I have been expanding my practice into installation work. However, I hold a critical view of myself in that I haven’t yet found a compelling reason why the concerns I explored in flat painting must necessarily continue in spatial form. Because of this, it could be said that my installation works thus far have been driven more by the “will” to attempt than by a clearly defined “reason.” Although I don’t yet have a concrete plan for a specific project, I intend to first deeply reflect on the necessity for my paintings to evolve into installations, seeking a meaningful justification for this transition.
Jimin Chae's artist windows, "Three Columns", are on view now until 20 August 2025 at the Hermès Liat Towers boutique. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
