FOUNDRY SEOUL presents 《Do Wetlands Scare You?》, a solo exhibition by Seoul-based artist Miryu Yoon from August 23 to October 5, 2024. Yoon investigates the peculiar impressions and abstract sensations that momentarily emerge in the process of interaction between figures and their surroundings through the painterly language. In the exhibition, the artist presents 33 new works set against the backdrop of wetlands.

‘A place where the ground is sunken and always filled with water.’ Wetlands are vital habitats to a wide variety of plants and animals, representing the essential forces of life in nature. At the same time, however, wetlands often evoke fear and dread in humans since the tangled web of muddy clay and submerged plants can quickly swallow a full-grown person and make it difficult to escape. In the exhibition, Miryu Yoon extends her painterly experimentation by taking the wetland as a symbolic space.

Yoon’s paintings can be categorized as figurative or portrait paintings, since they feature figures and situations. However, the artist’s goal is not to provide a detailed depiction of the subject like a traditional portrait. Instead, she seeks to capture and experiment the unique sense of formality and abstract sensations that her subjects create in their interactions with their environment. As such, the figures in Yoon’s work are not meant to be the subjects that drive a continuous narrative. They are the medium through which the artist reveals the sensations she seeks to capture and explore, and they are the intermediaries that offer the foundation for new narratives that will expand infinitely in the viewer’s imagination.

To accomplish this, Yoon undertakes a unique process. The artist casts her close acquaintances, including colleagues, friends, and family, to act as characters in her work and place them within meticulously staged situations. Yoon selects backgrounds, objects, clothing, and tools with careful consideration for colors and materiality to maximize the sensations she desires to evoke. Once the staged scene is in place, the artist converts it into an image using the iPhone’s Live Photo feature. Live Photo images record the 1.5 seconds before and after the moment of shooting. This process creates images that blend familiar and unfamiliar sensations, combining carefully staged scenes with coincidental elements such as light, temperature, and momentary expressions and movements. The artist then translates the abstract sensations captured in a fleeting moment into a painterly language. As a result, Yoon’s compositions become an illusion, a collection of sensations where the figures interact with other subjects around them, generating new sensations and drawing the viewer into an expanded experience.

In the exhibition, Yoon focuses on the women who live in the wetlands, possessing powers that is either seductive or destructive. Wetlands, with their dense jungles and bottomless marshes, create an eerie and brooding atmosphere and have served as the backdrop for various tales and myths. They are often inhabited by spirits, fairies, monsters, or ghosts that threaten humans. Although they vary in form and nature depending on the region and culture, they are most often depicted as distinctive spiritual beings that linger at the water’s edge and lure humans to their deaths by dragging them into the water.

In Slavic mythology, Rusalka appears as an old woman with hair all over her body or as a woman with sparkling eyes, long green hair, and a slippery body. She lures men to dance with her by the water until they die or drowns them by tickling them to death. In Finnish mythology, Näkki is a beautiful creature with long, flowing hair who can transform her appearance. When the sun goes down, she transforms into a monster with scales, protruding eyes, and sharp fangs, luring children into the water to drown. These figures have evolved in the various stories, instilling anxiety and fear among people while also serving as symbolic figures that protect people from danger.

Yoon explores these beings not as evil spirits who harm humans for no reason or as ruthless and violent witches, but with layered context, focusing on their power and mystery. And with three women against the backdrop of the wetland, the artist seeks to reveal a new myth. One woman in the water calls out to another. They gaze at the viewer or at each other, whispering messages, holding hands, and embracing together. Their movements ripple across the huge canvas that overwhelms the viewer, drawing them into an illusion. However, this story does not end in death. These captivating women on canvas are no longer Rusalka nor Näkki. They exist with us here and now, generating new sensations with their entire bodies in each and every moment. Yoon’s paintings, heavily layered with her thick brushstrokes, provide enticing clues toward new narratives, continuously igniting sparks of life.

This book documents the 33 paintings by Miryu Yoon, presented for the first time in this exhibition, along with the installation view of the exhibition. In addition, the catalog offers diverse perspectives on the artist’s work with texts by Leeji Hong, a curator of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and critic Jinshil Lee. It is hoped that the publication will give readers a deeper insight into Miryu Yoon’s artistic practice and a broader understanding of her body of work.

References

• 작가 홈페이지 (Artist Website)