Artist
Ellen Warner
@theellenwarner
Ellen Warner is a an artist, currently studying at the Slade School of Fine Art. She explores points of rupture and connection that arise in navigating mixed heritage. Referencing family histories, locations linked to identity-forming memories, and everyday rituals such as the preparation of Korean food, Ellen examines the ongoing practice of identity construction rooted in intangible knowledge, while also considering the effect of environment on our experiences. Distorted, surreal imagery evokes the tension between “homeland” and diasporic cultures, and mirrors her experience of existing between the two.
Q1. What inspires the artist?
Ellen Warner is inspired by the unique complexity of diasporic experiences, especially as someone with mixed Korean heritage. She is also interested in food as a signifier of identities, cultures, and systems, and how we interact with place and landscape. As filmmaking is an important part of her practice, she also takes a lot of inspiration from artists such as April Lin林森, Zarina Bhimji, and Sin Wai Kin.
Q2. What does being a female artist mean?
Ellen Warner finds it often much harder for female artists to be fully heard in the art world, with intersecting aspects of identity making it even more pronounced. She values exploring how her Korean, gender, and queer identities intersect and appreciates communities like ESEA sisters that celebrate these multifaceted identities, helping her understand and value them fully.
Q3. How does Korean culture influence artist's art?
Ellen Warner shares that as someone who grew up in the UK, she didn’t have much contact with Korean culture until recently when she visited for the first time. Since then, she has tried to learn more about Korean traditional culture and how ideas of nationhood, belonging, and authenticity interact with diaspora culture and identity. She loves visiting New Malden, one of her favorite places in London.
Q4. Who are the female artist role models, and why?
Ellen Warner's role models is Jadé Fadojutimi, an incredible painter who reminds her how moving art can be. She also loves Zadie Xa’s work. Seeing Xa’s show at the Whitechapel last year was one of the first times she’d seen an artist making work about the Korean diaspora, and it felt so affirming to see Korean culture in a gallery.
Q5. What projects are currently being worked on?
Ellen Warner is working on an interactive video and photographic piece that explores how mixed-heritage Korean identity and Hallyu (the Korean Wave) interact. She is experimenting with Blender and coding, and she is excited to delve deeper into technology-based processes.
Han Ah Reum (One Arm Full of Groceries)
c.2024
Single-channel film, 9 mins
The title of this piece, Han Ah Reum (One Arm Full of Groceries), references H Mart, a Korean supermarket, and uses this location as a starting point to examine the effects of consumption on cultural identity. The audio uses a text-to-speech transcript of my search history alongside found audio, to explore my attempts to ground my mixed-heritage identity in food, and its role as an interpersonal symbol of care. Throughout the film, I examine different stages of my journey of connecting with my Korean heritage, from visiting Korea for the first time having been brought up in the UK, to learning about the ritual of making kimchi and its role as a traditional Korean staple and national dish, to a highly commoditised “superfood”. The film contains camera roll footage from Korea, and projected onto a painting, changing light levels reveal latent details in the painted surface.