Youngjoo Cho (b. 1978) brings to light the stories of marginalized or hidden bodies through artistic expression, history, and storytelling. Her work particularly focuses on exploring the relationship between the female body and its surrounding environment, investigating elements derived from this interplay through her personal experiences. 

The artist’s private yet public narratives, shaped by her lived experiences as a woman, are manifested through various media such as performance, photography, installation, video, sound, and choreography. By critically reconstructing the signs of othered and stereotyped femininity, her work offers a reflective critique of these symbols.

Youngjoo Cho’s early works primarily draw on her experiences as a minority—an "Asian woman"—during her time studying abroad in Europe, focusing on the gaze and prejudices she encountered. For instance, her work One Night with Someone’s T-shirt in My Bed (2006–2007) comprises photographs taken immediately after waking up, wearing T-shirts borrowed from white men she met the night before. This work explores and critiques the stereotypes projected onto Asian women within Western society. 

During this period, she also addressed her linguistic insecurities as an Asian woman in a Western context and examined the sense of alienation she felt as an outsider.

In the early 2010s, upon returning to Korea, Youngjoo Cho began creating works that explored the experiences of women living in Korean society. Her 2013 sound installation A Beautiful Match Made in Heaven examines how women in their 30s are perceived within the social framework of contemporary Korea. 

For this project, the artist contacted a match-making service, registered herself, and recorded the process of being introduced to potential partners. Despite being married at the time, she sought counseling for remarriage, experiencing absurd and bizarre classifications based on factors such as age, height, weight, and whether she had children. 

Contrary to its title, A Beautiful Match Made in Heaven exposes the humorous yet melancholic reality of Korea’s societal landscape, where the institution of marriage—rooted in pre-modern patriarchy—is entangled with capitalism, as exemplified by the operations of match-making services.

In her 2014 work, Universal Collaborators, Seoul, Youngjoo Cho examines the dynamics of relationships between Western men and Korean women in Korean society, particularly within the Korean art world. While her earlier works addressed the Western gaze toward Asian women during her time in Europe, this piece shifts focus to the societal perceptions in Korea regarding Korean women who associate with Western men. 

The work stems from Cho’s personal experiences, such as receiving noticeably warmer receptions from art professionals when attending exhibition openings with a Western white male companion compared to when attending alone. It also reflects societal prejudices, where professional relationships with Western men are often misinterpreted as romantic involvements or reduced to subjects of gossip.

This performance and interview-based work featured collaborations with "Western" men, whom the artist subjectively selected, to stage the persona of a "Korean female artist associating with Western man" within the Korean art world. The hired performer followed a set of guidelines predetermined by the artist, including specific clothing and hairstyles, and were instructed to escort the artist throughout exhibition openings, maintaining their roles as companions. 

The interviews included questions addressing societal prejudices in Korea as well as the experiences of a female artist who had lived in Europe for an extended period. In her responses, Cho alternated between candidly expressing her genuine perspectives and intentionally vague answers, allowing the boundaries between reality and staged scenarios to blur.

The artist has consistently used herself as a medium to expose pervasive prejudices in Korean society and to expand personal experiences into broader social narratives. Alongside this approach, she has also focused on "ajumma" — a term often used to describe ordinary middle-aged women in Korea — highlighting their lives and sacrifices within the framework of Korean society. 

Her dance film, Floral Patterned Romance (2014), produced in collaboration with middle-aged women from five regions — Busan, Osan, Daejeon, the DMZ in Cheorwon, and Yangpyeong — creates a space for these women to step outside the roles imposed by society. The project offers them an opportunity for liberation, allowing them to express themselves as individuals beyond their societal labels.

Born in the aftermath of the Korean War, these women often married through 'seon’ (meeting each other with a view to marriage) and devoted their lives to their husbands and children. Even after menopause and having their children married, a number of them still earn bread for their families.

Once identified solely as someone’s "wife" or "mother," these women found an opportunity in Youngjoo Cho’s project to rediscover their "beautiful" selves. For a brief moment, they rejoiced like children or were moved to tears. 

Floral Patterned Romance invites viewers to reflect on the lives and experiences of a generation of women who lived through decades of Korean history.

The following year, Youngjoo Cho initiated a community-based research project titled Talks in wearing a dress (2015), inviting middle-aged women into her studio to record conversations about their lives and loves. Aimed at providing a moment for these women—of her mother’s generation, who had lived selflessly for their families, valuing sacrifice as a virtue—to focus entirely on themselves, Cho transformed her studio into a powder room. 

In this setting, Cho took on the role of hairstylist and coordinator, offering makeup and hair styling to the participants. During these sessions, the women shared stories of their courtship days or unfulfilled romances. Once their make-up was complete, the participants donned dresses and were escorted to a nearby photography studio, where they had their portraits taken. The printed photo is given to each participant as a souvenir, and the content of their stories is saved as archives.

After experiencing childbirth and parenting, Youngjoo Cho introduced the theme of "caring" into her work. The performance video Feathers on lips (2020), inspired by Brazilian jiu-jitsu and wrestling, originates from memories of the body awakened through physical contact with her child during caregiving. 

In the video, four performers form pairs and engage in physical contests. Their bodily interactions appear simultaneously violent and tender, resembling acts of love. These gestures express the complex nuances of physical contact inherent in caregiving situations, where such interactions are unavoidable. Beyond the context of caregiving, these movements capture private and intimate moments often experienced or sensed through the female body in daily life.

Expanding her exploration of “caring” in work, Youngjoo Cho created the participatory installation Humangarten (2021–2024), which invites audiences to directly engage in caregiving activities through their own bodies. Inspired by domestic spaces, childcare centers, hospitals, and nursing homes—settings where caregiving predominantly occurs—the installation is composed of mats, exercise equipment, and other materials commonly used in such environments. 

By inviting audiences into the installation’s interior space, the artist encourages them to rest, care for themselves, or care for others, fostering a shared physical experience that mirrors the sensations and processes of caregiving labor.

Continuing her exploration of caregiving labor, Caring exercise (2023) extends the artist's perspective on caring. It consists of a participatory performance and a video piece, both centered on the idea of "everyone being both a caregiver and one who receives care."

In Caring exercise, a diverse group of performers—ranging from children, youth, and young adults to people with disabilities and the elderly—break traditional caregiving relationships. They perform duo exercises based on rehabilitation movements developed by a research team composed of visual artists, psychotherapists, activists, and dancers. The performers engage with care in their unique ways, complementing each other's physical vulnerabilities and collaboratively undergoing rehabilitation in a reciprocal caregiving process.

During the performance, white sponge sculptures from Humangarten are used as exercise tools for both performers and audience members, encouraging active participation.

Through her works, Youngjoo Cho has brought to the forefront the body and experiences of women, previously marginalized or objectified, and the often invisible labor of caregiving. By using the body as a medium, her art conveys her personal narrative as well as the stories of other marginalized groups within society.

"I work based on my own experiences, so Feathers on Lips started with the theme of caregiving and physical contact with my child. However, I did not merely reproduce that experience. There were various points of inspiration derived from such themes. It became a story about myself and the relationships around me, with abstract bodily movements revealing these connections. If you step back and look at it, ultimately, it’s a story about relationships." (Youngjoo Cho, Leepoetique Interview, June 14, 2021)

Youngjoo Cho studied Western painting at Sungkyunkwan University and pursued a master's degree in Fine Arts at the University Paris 8. She graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Arts de Paris-Cergy. Cho has been an artist-in-residence at various renowned programs, including the Delfina Foundation (London, 2023), MMCA Changdong Residency (2021), Seoul Art Space Geumcheon (2020), Incheon Art Platform (2017), and Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt art IT (2009).

Cho was selected as the Grand Prize Winner of the 20th SONGEUN Art Award and recently held a solo exhibition titled “Cadenza” (2024) at SONGEUN. Other recent solo exhibitions include “Cotton Era” (Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, 2020), “Five Seasons” (Seoullo Media Canvas, 2020), and “Mrs. Jellybee's Magnifying Glass” (PLACEMAK LASE, Seoul, 2019).

She has also participated in numerous exhibitions at major institutions both domestically and internationally, including ONE AND J. Gallery (Seoul, 2023), the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Gwacheon, 2022), Busan Museum of Art (Busan, 2022), and the Focus On X OVNI: Objectif Video Nice (Nice, France, 2019).

Her works are part of collections at institutions such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, and the SONGEUN Art and Cultural Foundation.

References

• 조영주, Youngjoo Cho (Artist Website)
• 송은, 카덴짜 (SONGEUN, Cadenza)
• 더 스트림, 일상과 일탈 사이의 변주: 조영주_INTERVIEW, 2018.01.30
• 노블레스, 일상을 모티브로, 작가 조영주의 이야기, 2021.03.10
• 리포에틱, 조영주 인터뷰, 2021.06.14