Originality & Identity

Yagwang is a visual arts collective consisting of Kim Terri (b. 1993) and Jeon In (b. 1995). Since its formation in 2021, the duo has carved out a distinctive trajectory in contemporary Korean art through multi-media works centered on queer discourse—particularly lesbian narratives. Crossing genres such as video, performance, installation, sculpture, and painting, they have persistently experimented with subverting fixed notions of identity and reconstructing space-times for existences outside of normative frameworks.

Their founding work, Lubricant(2021), and its expanded form in their first solo exhibition 《Lubricant》 (Windmill, 2022) placed queer—particularly lesbian—sexuality at the center, twisting fixed visual and conceptual frameworks of gender while responding to the discordant timelines of the present. In this context, they summoned generational queer experiences through the Russian female music duo t.A.T.u. in Lantern, reflected club culture in LATE(X), and transformed the exhibition space into a lesbian club in the performance Lick my heart, creating a platform for articulating previously unseen lives and desires.

Yagwang subsequently expanded into fictional narratives centered on invisible beings, non-normative characters, and surplus figures. In 《KIND》 (PS Center, 2024), they experimented with porous space-time where reality and fiction overlap, through the video work Intruder, a physical recreation of its setting, and the live performance Raw Proof staged in real space.

In 《The Poor》 (Museumhead, 2025), they addressed the intertwined nature of sexual and class identities through the sculpture Sculpture for Visitor (2023) and the video Visitor, engaging with narratives embedded in the spatiality of motels, such as sex work, temporary lodging, and the social periphery. Here, the transformed body as “trespasser” and “occupier” intersects with the shadow of reproductive labor, revealing multi-layered identities.

Most recently, in the group exhibition 《Young Korean Artists 2025: Here and Now》 at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the video work Dark Ride (2025) avoided objectifying the sensation of “fear,” instead using it as a medium to intersect social discourses on gender, labor, and care. Viewed through the eyes of a theme park haunted house worker, the work exposes the conditions of real-life fear embedded in everyday life, demonstrating the consistent expansion of Yagwang’s socio-gender consciousness.

Style & Contents

Yagwang organically combines multiple media—video, performance, installation, sculpture, and painting—to construct their narratives. In 《Lubricant》, they presented a structure in which video, interviews, and performances were broadcast simultaneously, enabling audiences to experience multiple layers of space-time in parallel, while blending club and talk show formats to reconstruct lesbian narratives absent in reality.

In 《KIND》, they actively employed tactile and non-ordinary materials such as latex, vinyl, and chains. The performance Raw Proof featured insect exoskeleton-textured masks, a wrestling ring, and cupping marks, visualizing narratives of transformation and intrusion. These materials and devices stimulated not only sight but also smell (the ammonia odor of latex) and touch, enhancing sensory immersion.

In 《The Poor》, the work Visitor demonstrated a significant shift in spatial arrangement and methods of representation. While relocating the specific context of a motel into a museum setting, they expressed temporality through the corrosion of latex surfaces and the transformation of images. At the same time, they repeatedly introduced a maid-costumed character to juxtapose sexual codes with the realities of labor.

In Dark Ride, they created an environment combining video and installation, allowing audiences to simultaneously perceive the route of the dark ride and the daily lives of theme park workers. Here, the video blends documentary elements with staged scenes, reinforcing a narrative that traverses reality and fiction.

Topography & Continuity

Yagwang is recognized as a rare case in contemporary Korean art for foregrounding queer discourse—particularly lesbian narratives—and intersecting them with issues of gender, labor, and class. Initially, they unearthed and reconstructed generational queer memories and subcultural codes (《Lubricant》). Later, they expanded their focus to dissolving the boundaries between fiction and reality (《KIND》), reconstructing the space-time of the social periphery (《The Poor》), and dissecting the structures of power and sensation in everyday life (Dark Ride).

Under the concept of a “porous timeline,” Yagwang has built heterogenous space-times and combined them with diverse social identities related to queerness, gender, labor, and class. The use of materials with strong physical and bodily associations—such as latex, chains, and vinyl—the fusion of performance with video and installation, and the overlap of fiction and reality have become their signature methods.

Looking ahead, Yagwang is likely to expand their practice into new contexts such as non-institutional venues, public spaces, and international queer networks, continuing their artistic experimentation to embrace multi-layered identities and heterogenous energies that lie outside social norms. Their work will remain a crucial site for redefining the aesthetics of queerness and intersectionality in contemporary Korean art.