Yoo Hwasoo (b. 1979) focuses on how technological advancements impact both humans and non-humans, examining the diverse relationships formed within technological environments. While observing broader social phenomena, the artist also explores the lives of ordinary individuals engaged in daily repetitive labor or the "leftover" beings deemed "useless."

In 2010, Yoo Hwasoo presented his first solo exhibition, “Dolce Vita”, showcasing works that breathed new life into discarded materials collected from streets and construction sites. These materials, having exhausted their original purposes, were reborn in his hands as practical objects with entirely new functions. 

The artist repurposed construction debris, such as scaffolding steel pipes, light bulbs, hard hats, and other items found at construction sites, to create chandeliers, standing lamps, chairs, and dressing tables. These unfamiliar objects, made from cold and rigid materials typically unsuited for furniture, offered a unique interplay of strangeness and familiarity as visitors were invited to sit on or interact with them.

Meanwhile, Tree (2010), installed as public art in the outdoor exhibition space, carries an ironic undertone. This public sculpture stood as if rooted atop the restored Cheonggyecheon site, which had been reopened in 2005, resembling a tree firmly planted in its place. Art critic Ban E Jung described it as “an artificial tree seemingly absorbing residual energy left behind by construction projects beneath the ground,” highlighting the intriguing paradox embedded in the work. 

Tree harmonizes with its surroundings while subtly resisting the context inherent to the environment. It quietly reflects an aspect of Korean society's relentless pursuit of redevelopment and construction, offering a nuanced critique of such practices.

In this way, materials in Yoo's works transcend their original functions to be reborn with entirely new forms and purposes. His solo exhibition “it’s difficult for me to use” at Insa Art Space in 2012 also drew on objects from the everyday, reintroducing them into the context of tangible reality. 

For this exhibition, the artist focused on forms of "labor" that fail to meet societal standards. For instance, he devised objects intended for individuals who live differently from societal expectations, such as artists. However, works like A Fan for Struggling Novelists Last Summer (2012), named as if meant "for someone," often took on forms that were impractical to use or difficult to obtain for most people. 

These objects, created for personal and specific purposes, assumed unique, one-of-a-kind shapes. By doing so, they distanced themselves from the realm of mass-produced, "useful" products that conform to social norms, ultimately positioning themselves as third-party entities outside the conventional framework of utility.

Alongside this, the artist turned his attention to the workplaces of construction workers who had lost parts of their bodies during their labor. These workers continued their tasks using one-of-a-kind tools they had modified to suit their physical conditions. Yoo Hwasoo provided them with new, standardized tools and documented how these objects were transformed over time. 

it’s difficult for me to use (2012), composed of video, photography, and installations of the actual objects, vividly illustrates how standardized, mass-produced items are altered to fit individual physical conditions. It captures the process of these tools becoming seamlessly integrated with the workers' bodies, their labor, and their lives.

Yoo Hwasoo's 2013 solo exhibition “So Straight and Justifiably” at Space K presented a more concentrated exploration of the theme of "life and labor." The works in this exhibition were inspired by the artist’s brief experience working on a drama set. 

The skilled craftsmanship of the set builders, the construction methods designed for easy dismantling, and the professionals' attitudes toward their work deeply intrigued the artist, leading him to connect their labor to his own artistic practice.

In the exhibition, Yoo Hwasoo took on the role of a director, instructing actual drama set builders to create two drama sets. The resulting works were constructed to the same standards as real drama sets and were entirely dismantled after the exhibition, in keeping with their identity as "drama sets." 
One of these sets was removed midway through the exhibition and replaced with a video documenting the processes of its installation and dismantling.

Following this, Yoo Hwasoo’s focus shifted toward examining societal standards of normalcy and abnormality. In the 2018 exhibition “Your Angle”, co-curated with photographer Jeeyang Lee, Yoo collaborated with seven individuals with disabilities to present works that challenge societal perspectives on disability. Within the framework of societal norms, bodies with disabilities are often categorized as abnormal and marginalized, distanced from productivity. Furthermore, science and technology frequently frame disabilities as abnormalities to be "overcome." 

In response, the artists chose to reveal these bodies as they are and crafted furniture tailored to their unique physical conditions. For instance, for Kim Won-young, a writer and lawyer with skeletal disabilities who finds it difficult to hold heavy books, Yoo created a bookstand that allows reading while lying down. For stand-up comedian Han Ki-Myung, who uses his disability to his advantage, Yoo created a tea table that is supported by his arm, which is bent to one side.

The works displayed a wide range of disabilities and life forms, inviting visitors to reconsider the tendency to erase individuality and reduce people with disabilities to a single category—the antithesis of "normalcy."

Yoo Hwasoo has continued to engage with people with disabilities, highlighting the contradictions in society's construction of the boundaries between normal and abnormal. In his 2021 work, Daisy and the Even Stranger Machine, he reconsidered the future promised by technological advancement from the perspective of disability.

Yoo reinterpreted the relationship between technology and disability through Kim Cho-yeop's novel Daisy and the Strange Machine using responsive technologies and human interaction. This work utilizes technologies such as motors, sensors, Arduino, closed-circuit televisions, pen translators, speech-to-text converters, text-to-speech converters, and more, repeating a chain of processes like braille transcription, reading aloud, interpretation, translation, sign language, and textification.

As the translation progresses, collisions and malfunctions occur between the machines, and the text becomes increasingly distorted. However, within the work, the machines depend on one another and form a collective order in their own way. Through this, the artist draws attention to the mutations behind technology and the possibilities arising from them.

Technology, intertwined with capitalism, develops with a sole focus on productivity. Yet, in Yoo Hwasoo's work, the machines continually clash and complement one another, slowly forming their own structure. His work encourages us to reflect on the direction in which technological development should move across multiple layers.

In the 23rd SONGEUN Art Award exhibition, Gesture of Cultivation (2023) focuses on the phenomenon where advancements in technology lead to a growing desensitization toward the natural environment in our daily lives. This installation collects and maintains ecological data of inedible mushrooms growing on trees removed for obstructing scenic views, using advanced technology in the form of a smart farm.

The smart farm, originally designed for human convenience and efficiency, is repurposed here as a technology for cultivating entities deemed useless by human standards. Through the act of caring for discarded elements of nature using cutting-edge technology created for human needs, the artist raises questions about how and with whom we coexist in today’s world.

In this way, Yoo Hwasoo harbors doubts about the societal standards that divide humans and non-humans, normal and abnormal, useful and useless, continuing his work to overturn the social illusions and prejudices created by such boundaries. His work reveals and respects those who are obscured by the value of utility, leading to a reflection on future coexistence.

“I want to focus on the stories of those who suffer for not meeting the 'standards' of a society that emphasizes only practicality.”

Yoo Hwasoo graduated from Dongguk University with a BFA and MFA in sculpture. Noteworthy solo exhibitions include “The Seat of Weeds” (Cultural Reserve Base T1, Seoul, 2021), “Shadow Work” (Organhaus, Chongqing, China, 2018), and “Working Holiday” (basis, Frankfurt, Germany, 2016).

He has also participated in group exhibitions held at various institutions both domestically and internationally, including the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art (Busan, 2023), Changwon Sculpture Biennale (Changwon, 2022), SeMA Nam-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, 2020), Savina Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul, 2019), and Sichuan Fine Arts Institute Museum (Chongqing, China, 2017).

Yoo Hwasoo has been an artist-in-residence at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Goyang Residency and Changdong Residency, as well as at international residencies such as the Basis International Residency in Germany and the Organhaus International Residency in China. Last year, he was selected as the winner of the Grand Prize at the 23rd SONGEUN Art Award, organized by the SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation.

References

• 송은, 제23회 송은미술대상전 (SONGEUN, The 23rd SONGEUN Art Award) 
• 반이정, 달콤한 인생, 토건 기계의 반어적 재탄생, 2010
• 경기창작센터, 유화수 (Gyeonggi Creative Center, Yoo Hwasoo)
• 인사미술공간, It’s difficult for me to use (Insa Art Space, It’s difficult for me to use)
• 서울시립미술관, 삶과 노동 – 최지아
• 한겨레, ‘관종’ 장애인들이 연 전시회에 갔다가 두 차례 펀치를 맞았다, 2019.10.19 
• 사비나미술관, 나나랜드: 나답게 산다 (Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Na Na Land, Where I Find Myself)
• 서울문화재단(Seoul Foundation for Art and Culture), Unfold X 2021: Digital Story-tellers
• 서울문화재단 블로그, 기술발전과 장애의 관계: 작가 유화수
• 퍼블릭 아트, 유화수, 문제적 시선의 기술들 – 이채원 
• 아트조선, 오토바이에 휴지통·CD가 대롱대롱… 아름답구나!, 2012.09.24