Solin Yoon (b. 1989) works across installation, video, text, and photography, pursuing a conceptual, multidisciplinary practice. She weaves together personal experiences and shared conditions into events, exploring the potential of an imagination that is amplified when these intersections resonate as a model of feminist subjectivity.

For example, in her 2021 solo exhibition 《Over You》 at Post Territory Ujeongguk, Solin Yoon stated that she sought to “transform the tensions and conflicts encountered when loving a man as a feminist identity, and the psychological vibrations arising from the resulting process of self-division, into a driving force to explore what a ‘better romance’ might be.”
 
Reconstructing her personal romantic experiences and the internal conflicts they entailed as a singular event in the form of an artwork, Yoon shared these narratives to create a space for reflecting on the complex relationships embedded within the emotion of “love” from a woman’s perspective.

First, in A way to deal with the dried flowers (2021), a three-channel video installation, the artist explores possible forms of transformation by dismantling bouquets she had received from romantic partners and kept for a long time without being able to discard them.
 
In one screen, a figure disassembles bundles of dried flowers, sorting them into petals, leaves, and stems, while the other two screens present a sequential process in which the remnants are soaked in water, heated, and ultimately extracted into ink.

Meanwhile, in the installation Redefining (2021), objects that are materially the same as before yet irreversibly transformed support the utterances of women who redefine love, while also suggesting their circumstances.
 
The slogans included in the work featured statements such as, "My romantic love cannot be defined by anyone. I get back up again, mourning the loss of the love,” and “Romantic love and the frustration that it brings makes women stand firm as beings who love.”

These statements are adapted from a phrase in Jenny Holzer’s work—“Romantic love was invented to manipulate women”—revised from the perspective of Korean women. By transcribing these slogans onto stocking-like objects that evoke the skin, using ink extracted from dried flowers, the artist seeks to “redefine” love.
 
In a review of the exhibition, critic Ahn Soyeon described these slogan works as “moving beyond skepticism and negation of romantic love to redefine the radicality of love accompanied by ‘loss’ and ‘frustration.’”

The work Exposure (2021), composed of photographs alongside text and voice, consists of records of heterosexual relationships by women who support feminism. In this work, the texts take the form of participants’ voices or written testimonies. The places where the artist had conversations about love with each participant are recorded in photos together with the participants’ objects, serving as a temporary place that helps expand each other’s viewpoints.
 
Their experiences and traces are revealed “to an extent that can be exposed” and the amount of revelation becomes an individual standard to assess solidarity, sympathy and tolerance. What efforts were made to maintain a relationship? What are the boundaries of love that are socially accepted? When did you find that the meaning of love had changed? What change is needed to move forward from now? Intimate talks in which a range of questions were constantly shared are brought to the exhibition space.

Meanwhile, the video work Safe Search (2021) uses driving—often associated with the freedom of mobility—as a case through which to reveal the structural and psychological anxieties that operate selectively according to gender. Indistinguishable Performance (2021), in turn, seeks perspectives for breaking through the boundaries of such anxieties.
 
The exhibition questions how far the subjectivity that appears in the course of choosing to part could go, and how it should change to move forward from now. Using these questions as a starting point, Solin Yoon hoped to be recognized as power that can be experienced as a sense to achieve real change, exploring the possibilities.

Meanwhile, in her 2023 solo exhibition 《Living with the Trouble》 at ONSU GONG-GAN, Solin Yoon approaches the issue of inter-floor noise—an “inescapable yet unresolvable” trouble perceived by individuals within Korean society. Although inter-floor noise is a collective issue arising in shared housing, it is often experienced as something deeply personal.
 
Such experiences were further intensified during the prolonged pandemic, amplifying feelings of isolation in the face of situations that individuals cannot resolve on their own. Moreover, hasty assumptions and feelings of aversion toward unseen others—those one cannot or does not wish to confront—could lead either to extreme hypersensitivity or to a complete emotional numbness.

Starting from a sense of helplessness toward structural problems that are inescapable yet seemingly unsolvable, Solin Yoon grants agency to the place she inhabits. In doing so, she seeks to devise ways of living with trouble without being entirely constrained by given realities.
 
For instance, in the video installation work Daily Reaction Stamping (2021-2023), the artist stamped the date onto the ceiling of her home each time inter-floor noise occurred, recording her physical and emotional responses in terms of speed, force, and direction.
 
The TV monitor plays the day, the hour, and the reaction when noise was detected. This ceiling is turned into the floor of the exhibition space, revisiting the meaning of attempting to postpone immediate reaction against a conflict.

The sound installation Inter-phone (2023), which was played through an intercom system, is composed from interviews with individuals who had continually watched and imagined the presence of those living beyond their walls due to inter-floor noise.
 
The intercom on the second floor of the exhibition features an interview with the artist’s downstairs neighbor, while the intercom on the third floor presents interviews with individuals interested in issues of inter-floor noise.
 
By appropriating the intercom, which is often used as a tool for one-way communication in apartment buildings, people reacting to the noise acted out their senses as abilities.

In another sound installation, Sound, noise, or (2023), Solin Yoon detects the invisible structures within walls through which noise travels, renders them as a graphic score, and then translates them back into sound, reconstructing them as counter-noise.
 
For this work, she collaborated with artist Yoon Jiyoung, approaching the process of mapping out the terrain of noise and interpreting it back into sound as a study of “sound” and “noise,” with the audience docking their attempts by plugging earphones into the wall.

Meanwhile, in her recent work, Solin Yoon turns to the theme of “care” from the perspective of a contemporary Asian woman. For instance, in her 2025 solo exhibition 《Care and Maintenance》, she reinterprets care—an inevitable form of psychological and physical labor tied to survival—through two contemporary conditions concerned with individual well-being: “post-kinship” and “post-human” relations.
 
At its core lies the paradoxical relationship between dependence and distance — how dependence can offer emotional well-being while leaving physical and emotional marks. The exhibition asks, how much can we rely on others and what is irreplaceable?
 
The works present moments in which unconventional care relationships form and maintain within them the concept of "distance." Here, "Holding the Distance" does not refer to separation or exclusion, nor is it simply a detached technical analysis. Rather, it is the observation of sincerity and the meaning of that "distance" in a relationship.

For example, Trace Machine (2025), created by modifying a hand massager, explores the ambivalent dynamics that arise within relations of care as both an inherent structure of the body and a context open to mutual transformation. After placing their hand inside the device and receiving a massage, viewers are left with imprinted text marks on their skin.
 
The text inscribed on the skin during the massage points to relational conditions that cannot be perceived simultaneously—palm and back of the hand, inside and outside. Through these bodily imprints, the artist questions the possibility of reconfiguring relationships of interdependence.

Meanwhile, in the video work Caregivers (2025), Solin Yoon examines the reciprocal relationship of dependency between a therapeutic AI companion robot and humans, raising questions about the future of care. The narratives presented across the three screens all center on PARO, an AI robot developed by Japan’s AIST.
 
Resembling a baby harp seal, the robot is equipped with sensors that respond to touch, sound, and light, and is designed with a weight of approximately 2.9 kg and a body temperature similar to that of an infant. It offers interactions akin to those of a companion animal to support the emotional well-being of individuals with psychological vulnerability, while alleviating the practical burdens associated with caring for a living being.

Solin Yoon focuses on the fact that this robot “becomes an object of care itself while simultaneously providing care to others.” Intrigued by how it suggests a shift in interpersonal relations surrounding care, she engaged in conversations with those who had spent time with PARO.
 
Hori-san, who researches the clinical applications of AI robots in psychotherapy, attests that PARO can serve as an alternative within the complex networks of human care. Meanwhile, Neo-san, who has lived with PARO for eight years, imagines a form of affectionate relationship without separation. Through these accounts, the work examines questions surrounding the future of care—its limits, its tools, and the mediated relationships that emerge through reliance on such technologies.

Solin Yoon’s practice reconstructs narratives rooted in intimate, private experiences into events that can be addressed within the public sphere, conveying the tensions and conflicts that arise within complex and multilayered relationships as sensorial experiences. In doing so, she opens up space for sharing and collectively reflecting on meaningful questions of the contemporary moment.
 
Furthermore, grounded in a non-hierarchical perspective, her work traverses diverse media—including image, text, and sound—to approach the intricate dynamics of present-day relationships in unconventional ways, proposing an alternative imagination through which we might come to understand both others and ourselves more deeply.

“How might we move beyond ‘archaeological remnants’—covered in cracks yet still embedded in place—to finally imagine the silhouette of a different phase? How can the position of an alternative perspective become something we can reach, touch, and feel our way through?” (Solin Yoon, Artist’s Note)

Solin Yoon studied painting and art history at Ewha Womans University, received her MFA in painting from Seoul National University, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the United States. Her recent solo exhibitions include 《Care and Maintenance》 (Art These Days + Art These Days 1st Floor, Seoul, 2025), 《Living with the Trouble》 (ONSU GONG-GAN, Seoul, 2023), 《Hands, Hands, Hands》 (Homesession, Barcelona, Spain, 2023), and 《Over You》 (Post Territory Ujeongguk, Seoul, 2021).
 
She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions and film festivals, including 《The Flâneur of Errors》 (Seoul National University Museum of Art, Seoul, 2026), 《Tread Softly, For You Tread on My Dreams》 (Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, 2025), 《Shared Territories: Resonances, Layers and Echoes》 (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2024), 《Art New Emerging Art Festival》 (Barcelona, Spain, 2023), and the 21st Seoul International ALT Cinema & Media Festival 《Asia/New ALT Cinema: NOW~HERE》 (Seoul, 2021).
 
Yoon has been awarded several residencies, including Suwon Art Studio PRJD (Suwon, 2026), Proyecto' Ace Artist Residency (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2024), and the Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency (Vermont, USA, 2024).

References

• 윤소린, Solin Yoon (Artist Website)
• 탈영역우정국, [전시개요] 너를 떠나 (Post Territory Ujeongguk, [Exhibition Overview] Over You)
• 안소연, [리뷰] 사건: 나는 무슨 일이 일어나길 바라며 (Ahn Soyeon, [Review] An Event: Expecting Something to Happen)
• 온수공간, [전시 개요 및 작품 설명] 리빙 위드 더 트러블 (ONSU GONG-GAN, [Exhibition Overview & Artwork Description] Living with the Trouble)
• 요즘미술+요즘미술일층, [전시 개요 및 작품 설명] 돌봄 유지 보수 (Art These Days + Art These Days 1st Floor, [Exhibition Overview & Artwork Description] Care and Maintenance)
• 윤소린, [작가 노트] ‘너를 떠나’를 마치고 (Solin Yoon, [Artist’s Note] After ‘Over You’)