Jiyoung Yoon (b. 1984) explores the psychology and attitudes of individuals facing specific situations or events through the grammar of sculpture. In particular, Yoon focuses on moments when one encounters something subtly unsettling within narratives that are typically taken for granted. Her work examines the interplay between external circumstances and the psychological and physical reactions that arise from within the individual.

Jiyoung Yoon has continually pursued an innovative conceptual exploration of sculptural creation, breaking away from the conventions of traditional sculpture. Her early performance video work, Seeing Things the Way We See the Moon (2013), had a significant impact on shaping her approach to sculpture. 

Seeing Things the Way We See the Moon (2013) is a performance video in which the artist visualizes the logical structure of her intended themes using her own body. This work was conceived during a period when she was moving between residencies, grappling with the sacrifices required for a sense of "stability." Through this piece, Yoon visually structures her personal question: "Can an initial sacrifice justify subsequent sacrifices?"

In the video, the artist creates a striking moment of tension by hanging from a high ceiling in a gallery space, her long hair tied to the ceiling beam and her body suspended from a bar. Two assistants standing on ladders on either side of her cut the knot of hair with scissors, releasing her body. At the moment of her liberation, the artist lands by crushing an empty turtle shell placed on the floor beneath her. 

This sequence establishes a visual logical structure composed of three elements: the suspended artist, the assistants cutting her hair, and the turtle shell at the landing point. This triangular composition, connected by a taut tension oscillating between balance and instability, signifies the causal relationship between survival and sacrifice. At the moment her body descends, the structure raises questions about the cycle and justification of sacrifice required to ensure safety.

The approach of logically structuring her themes as relational interactions between objects or bodies and translating them into visual forms has remained a consistent thread in Yoon's sculptural practice. One of her early signature works, Maslow, Bullshit (Dear Peer Artists 1) (2014), reinterprets the psychological theory of human needs through the lens of an artist’s life, translating it into a visual and sculptural form.

In this work, Yoon addresses the dissonance and imbalance between the creative desires of artists and the lower-level needs required for basic survival in an unstable life. To explore this, the artist reimagines psychologist Abraham H. Maslow’s classic five-stage hierarchy of needs as a three-dimensional sculpture.
 
The piece is designed as a radially symmetric diagram with a horizontal structure, comprising five inflatable spheres connected and pressurized by an air pump. The spheres exert pressure on one another until the weakest one bursts. According to Yoon's interpretation, while different needs may exist on the same plane, they inevitably enter into a suppressive relationship with one another, leading to an eventual rupture and imbalance in the system.

In Jiyoung Yoon's 2015 work A Single Leg of Moderate Speed, the structure of sacrifice, previously explored in Seeing Things the Way We See the Moon, reappears. The installation fills the space with components such as a rectangular flat sculpture standing precariously on one edge, supported by cloth wrapped around strings, and another sculpture lying down to prop up others. Suspended nearby are a pair of gymnastics rings, perpetually capable of destabilizing the delicate equilibrium of the surrounding pieces.

All the sculptures in A Single Leg of Moderate Speed are interconnected by strings, relying on each other within a state of taut tension. Yoon likens this precarious balance to the compromises individuals make to adapt to their given lives.

Meanwhile, No Planar Figure for Sphere (2018) was created as Yoon’s response to the Sewol Ferry Disaster, a tragic event that profoundly affected the emotional fabric of countless individuals. This work comprises unfolded human body planar figure and silicone skin fragments derived from them.

The silicone skin pieces were created based on measurement data of a male figure (Matt) purchased from a 3D scanning company. The data was used to generate an unfolded diagram of Matt’s body surface, which was then molded and cast in silicone. However, the flattened body of Matt cannot be reconstructed into a complete three-dimensional form. Just as a sphere cannot be perfectly unfolded into a flat plane due to its curvature, the human body, too, resists being rendered into a flawless planar diagram.

Thus, what is presented in this work is nothing more than an incomplete shell, unfolded and devoid of internal structure. 3D graphic imagery has often been used as a means to describe entities that do not exist in reality or cannot be directly shown. This approach was similarly employed by media reporting on the Sewol Ferry Disaster, using 3D graphics to analytically illustrate the capsizing of the ship and the ensuing loss of lives.

In this context, the abstract 3D forms representing victims' bodies—like Matt’s shell—fail to fully convey the humanity within their surfaces. Through these spherical 3D body fragments, the artist speaks to the impossibility of fully representing disaster. At the same time, the work raises questions about the grounds of perception, belief, and knowledge that persist despite this limitation.

Subsequently, Jiyoung Yoon began exploring themes related to the female body in response to misogynistic crimes in Korean society and the "Me Too" movement. Created as a reaction to a series of incidents targeting women's bodies, Leda and the Swan (2019) draws upon an iconic motif from Western art history, where numerous male artists have depicted the myth of Zeus, in the form of a swan, raping Leda.

While traditional depictions by male artists objectified the victim’s body as a sexualized figure, Yoon subverts this narrative with resistance. Her sculpture features a cast of her own hand gripping the swan's (Zeus’s) neck tightly, reversing the power dynamics inherent in the myth.

Surrounding this central figure are three spherical sculptures engraved with drawings created by three female tattoo artists who collaborated with Yoon. Each artist interpreted the misogynistic myth in their own way, embedding their personal critique into the work.

Meanwhile, the Yellow Blues_ (2021) series visualizes Jiyoung Yoon’s reflections on excessive self-consciousness and individualization stemming from prolonged self-quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sculptures in the Yellow Blues_ series, which take the form of spheres, cubes, or sharp spikes, start from the concept of the 'body,' yet they bear no resemblance to the actual human form.

Instead, Yoon generates physical meaning through the materiality of the objects. The main material used in these works, silicone, serves as a metaphor for skin, enveloping the internal structures of the body through casting and molding. Additionally, the plasticity of silicone, which can be altered by external forces or environmental conditions, evokes the organic processes of the body and its transformative potential.

Among them, Me, No (2021) is a sculptural work featuring six polyhedral shapes with the same volume but different forms, each wearing a cloth made of silicone that does not fit its body. The silicone clothes are made from the skin of the six shapes, detached from their original bodies and placed on another entity’s body.

The sculptures, wearing clothes that don’t fit perfectly, reveal the sense of dissonance between the hope of transformation into an ideal form and the reality that such transformation is unattainable. In this way, silicone in Jiyoung Yoon’s sculptures serves as a metaphor for the physical boundary of skin that separates oneself from the external world. At the same time, it represents the psychological boundary of skin, which forms the self through various sensations.

The artist's new work There was a time when, not knowing how to live, I took out my entrails to make a net. (2024), currently on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea as part of the "Korea Artist Prize 2024" exhibition, is a large-scale installation resembling a net made from what seems like twisted entrails. This work continues the artist’s exploration of the dynamics between what is externally imposed and what emerges from within.

Having addressed the interaction between the external and internal, the body and the mind, the artist weaves intimate pain and desire into the entrail net in this new piece. Hand-stitched, this entrail net is a form of devotion imbued with the artist's longing for a 'better' state. Installed at the entrance of the exhibition, this 'entrail net' invites the audience into the artist's intimate space.

Jiyoung Yoon’s sculptures reveal the subtle workings of the inner mind. Like living organisms, they interact with both the internal and external, sometimes showing signs of injury or relying on one another to maintain balance. These sculptures reflect the hidden inner states not only of the artist but also of ordinary people.

"I am interested in revealing the attitude individuals take when faced with an event orsituation presented by their environment, in order to live 'better' or 'improve.'" (Jiyoung Yoon, Interview with Ifacnews 3.0, August 26, 2020)

Jiyoung Yoon majored in sculpture at Hongik University and received her master's degree in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Her solo exhibitions include "Yellow Blues_" (ONE And J. Gallery, Seoul, 2021), "A Single Leg of Moderate Speed" (Bing&Thing Archive, Seoul, 2015), and "Glorious Magnificent" (Mana Contemporary, Chicago, USA, 2014).

Yoon has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including "Young Korean Artists 2021" (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, 2021), "This Event" (Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2020), "Night Turns to Day" (Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2019), and "Ecological Sense" (Nam June Paik Art Center, Yongin, 2019).

Last year, she was selected as one of the finalists for the "Korea Artist Prize 2024" organized by the MMCA and SBS Foundation. In 2023, she was awarded the DAAD Artists in Berlin. She has also been an artist-in-residence at the SeMA Nanji Residency and the MMCA Residency Goyang, as well as at international residencies such as MacDowell in the USA. Currently, her works are held in the collection of the Seoul Museum of Art.

References

• 윤지영, Jiyoung Yoon (Artist Website)
• 국립현대미술관, 올해의 작가상 2024 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), Korea Artist Prize 2024)
• 올해의 작가상 2024, 보이지 않는 면이 존재한다 - 김정현 / 노란 달 하나, 귀 하나의 자리 – 이진실 (Korea Artist Prize 2024, The Sides We Cannot See Do Exist - Junghyun Kim / Space for an Ear, a Yellow Moon - Jinshil Lee)
• 산수싸리, 길 위에서 (Sansussari, On the Road)
• 인천문화통신 3.0, 윤지영, 2020.08.26
• 원앤제이 갤러리, 윤지영 작가와의 대화 (ONE AND J. Gallery, Artist Talk | Jiyoung Yoon)