DRAW
The peculiarity of drawing is that it is a medium which is more affordable and limited in application. The artist’s most intimately manifested lines and colors reveal her emotional condition and inner world, charged with the artist’s free-flowing physical movement and energy. Fully disclosing the relationship between the artist and the art work, drawing has departed from its function in the past of merely providing the preliminary sketches or studies for a final art work, to become an autonomous creative medium in contemporary art. As drawing is a creative activity that takes place in the everyday life of an artist, and is a practice which in itself completes the fundamentals of other artistic processes, it emphasizes the artist’s originality. Thus, it is an apt medium for contemporary art practice which places value on the art of the everyday and the process of conceptualization and creativity.
The line takes the central role in the works of Heeseop Yoon (born in 1976), whose works vary from enormous wall drawings to small scale works, employing materials such as mylar, masking tape on paper and pen. Installed in the exhibition are carefully cut sheets of translucent mylar, layered upon layers to create an effect of multiple lines. As exemplified in the titles of her works such as Dad’s Basement and Junk Shop, Yoon depicts objects that are easily spotted in the everyday life yet have no immediate use, rendering them in layers of tape or in thick flowing lines with pen. The repeated lines of correction created in the process of rendering the objects are left un-erased. The lines are at times repeated and overlapped in order to emphasize the shape and form. Each line is produced through a precise perception of the objects, yet each time results in a different line. The innumerably reiterated lines suggest the variability of the human perception which changes with time, place or even method.
Wonjung Choi (b. 1976) uses Plexiglas or thin plastic sheets to draw with hot glue, then cuts and suspends them in space. As the light reflects off the plastic sheets and hot glue, the brilliantly sparkling transparent surface, lines, and the shadows cast on the walls and floor create a dream-like ambience. The artist transfuses herself as the fossilized fish, feather, butterfly and dinosaur that are rendered in hot glue. Choi’s works reference the process of mutation and evolution undertaken by diverse organisms in order to adapt to their surroundings. In the same way, Choi’s art alludes to the artist’s own condition of displacement as a foreigner living in a different country, and the process of transformation in her identity and way of life. Her recent works are indecipherable montages, based on portrayal of anonymous people from cheap tabloid newspapers and magazines. The characteristics of each individual, portrayed through most banal and everyday words, are re-rendered into drawing. Through this process, Choi’s unique drawings shed a light on the juxtaposition and overlapping between originality and banality of the individual’s identity, and between the actual appearance and the fabrication that is created with words.
Two artists, both born in 1976, have been getting spotlight in America with their distinctly original art practice. After graduating from Chung Ang University, Korea, Heeseop Yoon furthered her studies at the City University of New York. Her large scale bold line drawing works received much acclaim at her recent 2-person exhibition at Bose Pacia in New York City. Yoon is currently preparing for a large group show entitled Colliding Island to open this year in Australia.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree at Hongik University, Korea, Wonjung Choi completed her studies at School of Visual Arts in New York City. The dream-like images created with transparent light and shadow captivated the New York audience, and prominent New York art collectors at Whitney Museum, Armory Show and Blair Clark have shown immense interest in Choi’s work. Choi has also participated in the exhibition Passing Through, sponsored by Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City and the billionaire owner of Bloomberg L.P. Company.
