The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation is pleased to present Land of Tenderness, a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary NYC-based South Korean artist Bang Geul Han. Opening March 16, 2023, it presents part one of Terre de Tendre, a new virtual reality work and accompanying immersive video installation. The work is loosely based on the Carte du Tendre: a map created by a group of women in 17th century France that charts the path towards true love through an imagined land.

The simulated landscape is embedded with text generated by an artificial intelligence system trained on legislation and court rulings concerning immigration and borders, as well as firsthand accounts of migrant children’s journeys and experiences. The work uses virtual reality technologies to interrogate themes of interdependency, memory, empathy, and care among human and non-human agents, in order to approach and reframe questions concerning the ongoing migration crisis.

Land of Tenderness also features recent works across a variety of media, with an emphasis on legislative changes including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the difficult decisions it leaves for the most vulnerable among us in its wake.