Metanoia(presented with They are All Beautiful and To Live as an Asian Woman), 2025, included in THE CLEAN THAT STAINS
, Gallery Troef, Leiden, NL
* Curated by Jonathan & Charmaine
* Venue: Troef, Leiden, NL
* Installation support: Engin Batır, Maarten Slof
* Technical support: Lucas Heft
* Photographer: Chris Becher
* Venue: Troef, Leiden, NL
* Installation support: Engin Batır, Maarten Slof
* Technical support: Lucas Heft
* Photographer: Chris Becher
Metanoia explores the quiet yet powerful process of inner transformation — a turning away from imposed truths, and a gentle return to the self.
Religion, across cultures, has offered people a way to find meaning and connection. But it has also been used to draw lines — between saved and unsaved, right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable.
This installation brings together the sounds of two spiritual spaces: a Christian church and a Buddhist temple. One speaks of judgment and redemption; the other, of mourning and renewal. These layers do not aim to compare, but to hold space for different ways of understanding life, death, and what lies beyond.
As an Asian individual, Seulbin Roh has come to notice how certain roles and expectations are silently placed upon bodies — through words, images, and repeated assumptions. Often, these expectations are not openly stated, but quietly absorbed, shaping how we are seen and how we see ourselves.
Metanoia — originally meaning repentance — also carries the sense of a shift in perception, a soft rebellion against what no longer resonates. It is the slow, often invisible act of reclaiming one’s own meaning beyond external definitions.
This work invites the listener to reflect: How are our beliefs shaped? What do we inherit — through religion, culture, or history — that we no longer need? And what might it mean to listen inwardly, and begin again, on our own terms?
Religion, across cultures, has offered people a way to find meaning and connection. But it has also been used to draw lines — between saved and unsaved, right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable.
This installation brings together the sounds of two spiritual spaces: a Christian church and a Buddhist temple. One speaks of judgment and redemption; the other, of mourning and renewal. These layers do not aim to compare, but to hold space for different ways of understanding life, death, and what lies beyond.
As an Asian individual, Seulbin Roh has come to notice how certain roles and expectations are silently placed upon bodies — through words, images, and repeated assumptions. Often, these expectations are not openly stated, but quietly absorbed, shaping how we are seen and how we see ourselves.
Metanoia — originally meaning repentance — also carries the sense of a shift in perception, a soft rebellion against what no longer resonates. It is the slow, often invisible act of reclaiming one’s own meaning beyond external definitions.
This work invites the listener to reflect: How are our beliefs shaped? What do we inherit — through religion, culture, or history — that we no longer need? And what might it mean to listen inwardly, and begin again, on our own terms?
The presented work embodies an attempt to dismantle self-identity constructed by external authority and restore one's own way of being. Through the installation, Roh resists gendered and racialized gazes, and shares a journey of inner metanoia, breaking free from the "self" defined by the gaze of others or institutional norms, and connecting with her true self.
By deconstructing the Western-centric politics of gender power, gaze, and signs projected onto racialized Asian women, Roh critiques sexual objectification. By presenting confessional and testimonial texts based on her own experiences, she demonstrates resistance to the coercion of silence.
Finally, Roh explores how the institutional structure of religion is deeply intertwined with otherization, conveying the message that true salvation and the purpose of existence can be reached not through external authority but through self-reflection and commitment to others.
In other words, the gaze moves from external gaze to the recovery of one's own voice, and then to self-liberation and inner connection.