Artist Profile Hyunju An

An’s meticulous, chocolate sculpture holds fracture and reconciliation in exquisite tension.

Artist Statement

Cracks and Reconciliation.
Break and stretch out to reach reconciliation through the gap.
It is fulfilled even if the cracks are not filled.
The 5 sides are different walls of mind (heart) that cracks and twists.
My hand is reaching out from the cracked heart.
Pieces of life, which seems to be torn and worn but still beautifully shaped, are on each side of the wall of my heart.
The surface is scratched and faded but seem to be solid and contact.
To reach out it must come out through the crack, to mend and reconcile with myself.
It is a sign of understanding.
Once oneself understands, accepts and embraces what has been broken inside and realises it is nothing broken indeed, one can truly be fine.

This concept of ambivalence has always been a strong instinctive attraction to me.
Death and life, darkness and light, cold and warmth, and so on.
They cannot exist without one another, they cannot be felt without one another.
Neither one is positive nor negative.

Artist Biography

I’m Hyunju An, a Melbourne-based chocolate artist and pastry chef with a background in Psychology. After completing a Bachelors in Arts of Psychology at Busan National University, South Korea, I moved to Melbourne to continue with my true passion, chocolate and patisserie. Chocolate and art have been the biggest self-actualisation medium and enthusiasm for me. While working as a pastry chef, spending after hours to create chocolate work has become my way to express creativity and self-awareness using my favourite medium, chocolate. My edible sculptures explore emotional states and psychological tension through ephemeral materials like chocolate and sugar. By combining sensory craftsmanship with conceptual inquiry, I give physical form to psychological ambivalence drives, inviting viewers to engage through both sight and sensation.