Si On: Soft Armour, Heavy Bones
28th March, 2025 – 13th May 2025
Edel Assanti
1B Little Titchfield Street
London W1W 7BU
In her second solo exhibition at Edel Assanti, the South Korean artist Si On presents a world of disquieting beauty and psychological depth. Titled Soft Armour, Heavy Bones, the show brings together recent paintings and sculptures that continue her exploration of the body as a site of conflict, resilience, and transformation.
Si On works through daily, intuitive processes, building her pieces in layers — of material, memory, and symbolism. Her palette is vibrant, sometimes even hallucinatory, but what underpins the work is a steady tension between opposing forces: innocence and violence, humour and sorrow, strength and fragility.
250 x 200 cm (98 3/8 x 78 3/4 in). © Si On.
Courtesy the artist and Edel Assanti. Photo by Tom Carter
‘Life experiences shape our identities,’ she says, ‘as we carry memories, hopes, scars, and traumas that accumulate over time, revealing the complex aspects of our humanity.’
Across three rooms, a series of female figures appear — not as passive subjects, but as restless protagonists. In the first space, two large paintings introduce a hybrid figure: part warrior, part child. In Unstoppable (2024), she stands beside a three-headed bird drawn from Korean shamanic tradition. Her armour is marked by flowers and stickers — playful emblems that read as both adornment and protection.
Throughout the show, Si On draws from personal history, folklore, and pop culture. But nothing is presented as fixed. Symbols slip and shift. Meanings overlap. In Master of Puppets (2025), a costumed authority figure holds a chained tiger — a vision of dominance already cracking. Inside the tiger’s mouth, a girl stares out, her eyes lit with quiet defiance.
Photo by Tom Carter.
The sense of tension deepens in Forest Knows (2021), where figures blend into a dense pine landscape. Bursts of colour break through the green, suggesting hidden forces at work — spirits, memories, dangers, perhaps all at once. The boundary between figure and ground dissolves. ‘I believe that every form — human, animal, or even inanimate objects like stones and dust — possesses spirit and value,’ Si On says. ‘I honour even the smallest elements of the world, recognising our interconnectedness.’
The sculptures offer a different kind of weight. 40 Years Old (2018–2021), a towering candelabra made from bronze and scavenged materials, reflects on ageing and endurance. At its base, household plungers serve as pedestals for stones and trinkets — a mix of the intimate and the industrial, the sacred and the absurd.
What connects these works is a refusal to simplify. Si On doesn’t offer allegory or resolution. Her world is one of layers and contradictions, where nothing is wholly innocent or wholly lost. ‘Each piece serves as a reminder of our fragile yet resilient nature,’ she says, ‘highlighting that we are constantly evolving, often in conflict with ourselves, yet still holding onto hope.’
Soft Armour, Heavy Bones is not a straightforward narrative, but a meditation — on memory, on power, and on the delicate, often painful work of becoming.
Instagram: @edelassanti
Si On: Soft Armour, Heavy Bones opens on the 28th of March, 2025 until the 13th of May 2025 at Edel Assanti
©2025
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