Yi Soonjoo: Mum Mom Mam
ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul
23 February - 26 March 2023
Tell Me Your Wishes, 2005-2021
Mixed media on canvas, 70 x 75 cm
Courtesy of the artist and ONE AND J. Gallery
ONE AND J. Gallery presents Yi Soonjoo’s solo exhibition Mum Mom Mam. This exhibition displays ample drawings and paintings which Yi had created during a rather long window of time from the early 2000s until present. Mum Mom Mam shows Yi’s works of recent 20 years or older works but its composition is not chronological, it does not show how her art world has changed with time. Through Yi’s works that have sprung from the mainspring she had felt throughout her life, the viewer is naturally guided to sense the artist’s attitude toward life and her art world. Yi Soonjoo refuses to conform her life directions to social norms, and lives her life to the fullest welcoming every moment with joy. Such attitude in life is closely linked to her attitude as an artist and her methodology. As in our unpredictable life where we cannot foresee if we are headed forward, whether we are to stop where we are for a while, or if we should go back, Yi portrays her stories that are reactions from life in a fluid manner. Yi’s specialty is to play with reality using her unique sense of humor by secretly hiding her own code in the non-standardized screen, or surprising us with unexpected images. This delightful surprise seems to ‘poke’ our fixated thoughts which are becoming less fluid in this modern society.
Yi Soonjoo delves into essential issues of how to live as a human being and caresses through her paintings the emotions of desire, pain, conflict, social contradiction, loss, love that any contemporary man would feel. As these are nonverbal psychological states of mind, Yi breaks from all sociocultural norms as gender and age, resulting in drawings that have blurry boundaries. A mermaid that hides her face with a Burberry check pattern, a child with a leaf growing out of its ear, a tongue which uncontrollably spits out numerous luxury brand names, etc; on her canvas, we find figures which cannot easily be defined in language. They look like humans, but then again, they seem to be some kind of being that lives in an unknown world. Yi has taken down barriers among human, animal, plant, objects, and depicts them as beings with mutual relationships. They look like they exchange and share universal emotions and ideas which are normally issued from one’s life. As such, the artist draws these images filled with metaphors of reality, using commonly understood signs that have deeply infiltrated our society.
Since the 2019 solo show Mote Eye Beam (Obscura, Seoul), Yi has spent her time rummaging through her old drawings and paintings, observing the piled up layers as if playing with them. Yi describes this period as “raising the flashlight while fumbling through the darkness piled up with dust.” During the last 3 years or so, instead of actively creating new works, the artist observed her previous gestures while going through her old works, and newly added her current gesture onto them. Hence her works are not fixed at a point in the past, but are living the current era just as the artist does, being connected endlessly. Each work was stored in the studio and sometimes let out to receive the flashlight from the artist, slightly showing its existence to the world at some other time. At some different hour, these works clad with additional sensations signed by Yi keep on living with the artist’s life. In the exhibition Mum Mom Mam, faded old paintings that received current gesture of touch-ups such as Shyness (1996-2022), Glance (2000-2022), Life Style (2000-2022) come alive together as well as some drawings and other paintings, and recent big-scale new paintings.
At a glance, Yi’s screen depicting vague forms floating freely could seem unrealistic, but it actually portrays extremely realistic stories; some event experienced by somebody in the past, a current experience, or a plausible future scenario. Just like the exhibition title ‘Mum Mom Mam' which is a phonetic notation resembling sounds that existed before the advent of social language, we hope the viewers would face the world slowly following the rhythm of Yi Soonjoo’s drawings while murmuring something in their hearts that cannot be clearly put into words.
YI SOONJOO
Yi Soonjoo received her B.F.A in Painting from Hongik University and studied painting/drawing at Städelschule, Frankfurt in Germany. Yi is currently active both in Korea and Germany, and has operated Drawing Space Salgoo since 2014. Yi has held her solo exhibitions at ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul (2023); Obscura, Seoul (2019); Space ikki, Seoul (2018); Take Out Drawing Seongbuk-dong, Seoul (2010); Project Space Sarubia, Seoul (2004) and others. Participated in numerous group exhibitions and biennales including those held at the Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (2015, 2004); Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Gyeonggi (2009); Arko Art Center, Seoul (2006); Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA), Seoul (2005, 2004); Aussellugshalle 1A, Frankfurt (2004); Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul (2003); Museum of Modern Art Bologna, Bologna (2001); Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju (2000); Utsunomiya Museum for Modern Art, Japan + Niigata Civic Center Gallery, Niigata (2000) and many more.
ONE AND J. Gallery
31-14 Bukchon-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03055
