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Sculpture (MA)

Woonhae Yea

Woonhae Yea (b.1989, South Korea) lives and works in London and Seoul. She received her BA in Fine Art from the Goldsmiths, University of London in 2015 prior to studying sculpture at the Royal College of Art. In 2018, Woonhae has won the First Art Support, granted by the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture.

Select solo exhibitions include, Deals of Limitless Things (One Pound Shop, Seoul, 2018); Everything Must Go! (One Pound Shop, Seoul, 2018); Contemporary Trash! (Rainbowcube Gallery, Seoul, 2018); A needs B, B makes C (Seoul Art Space Seogyo, Seoul, 2018). Select group exhibitions include Together It Seams (Standpoint Gallery, London, 2021), Play by Ear (The Markfield Project, London, 2021); Nothing Twice (Buk Seoul Museum of Art SeMA, Seoul, 2019).

Woonhae Yea

Woonhae Yea’s practice is centred around things that continue to expand and exist without ends, such as ubiquitous plastic discards that never disintegrate, becoming part of an environment where interspecies relations play out in an urban context.




Scavenging, 2021 — Sound/slide carousel projector, 8 slides documented, video duration 1 min 8 sec
Scavenging, 2021 — Carousel projector, 81 slides documented, video duration 8 min 15 sec

'Slides, of course, offered a virtually infinite range of cheap pictures easily accumulated. Their small size meant that they could be readily manipulated, while their transparency meant that they could be enlarged to the typical scale of paintings without the imposition of a lot of physical material.' 

An extract from Slide Show: Projected Images in Contemporary Art, Charles Harrison, 2005. 


With 2 slide carousel projectors and 1 sound/slide projector installed concurrently, the work invites the audience into my scavenging towards things. It consists of both mundane and transcendental images as well as mechanical yet vibrant sounds, creating an atmosphere of witness to my day-to-day practice.


Scavenging is a part of the ongoing series, SIL-oo-ET (Silhouette).

Medium:

226 slides, assorted vinyl packaging within slide mounts, slide projector, sound/slide projector, endless-loop outgoing message tape

Size:

15 min (loop), 3 projections installed, dimensions variable
Endangered mountain gorilla from Africa, rescued with my bin
Endangered mountain gorilla from Africa, rescued with my bin
Workmate
Workmate
I am not stealing a street litter bin. You get it now, right?
I am not stealing a street litter bin. You get it now, right?
Hirst's
Hirst's

Via my street litter bin, I want to share with the audience some romanticised scenery and mood, derived from promotional travel brochures. Images scavenged from Worldwide Adventure Tours 2021-2022, which are outdated and discarded in the declining global travel current, resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.

A set of 6 original litter signs supported by Glasdon UK Limited.   


Worldwide Adventure Tours via Victorian-Style Street Litter Bin is a part of the ongoing series, SIL-oo-ET (Silhouette).

Medium:

226 slides, assorted vinyl packaging on slides, 35mm slide projector, sound/slide projector, endless loop outgoing message tape

Size:

Dimensions variable (Litter bin size: 115 x 55 x 55 cm)
Substitute 042, 26 x 25 x 15 cm
Substitute 042, 26 x 25 x 15 cm
Substitute 036, 22 x 33 x 20 cm
Substitute 036, 22 x 33 x 20 cm
Substitute 027, 22 x 38 x 12 cm
Substitute 027, 22 x 38 x 12 cm

In Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, she created an incorruptible being, the Creature, through Dr. Victor Frankenstein, as a reflection on the rapid advancement of technology at that time.

Amazed and influenced by both the novel and the current urban norms, I see, feed, and create my ‘beings’, substitutes that appear to be in the shapes of crows, ravens and rooks. These scavengers are filled with discards that I hunt in my everyday practice.


47 birds-ongoing

Substitute – Corvus is a part of the ongoing series, SIL-oo-ET (Silhouette).

Medium:

Blended wax, plastic bottles filled with assorted rubbish, activated charcoal powder, pigment and mixed media

Size:

Dimensions variable

‘Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay

To mould me man? Did I solicit thee

From darkness to promote me?’


A quote from Paradise Lost, John Milton, 1667.


Also inspired by Frankenstein, this series of works are the X-rays of Substitute – Corvus. The title is compounded with ‘cyborg’ and ‘bird’.


Cybird is a part of the ongoing series, SIL-oo-ET (Silhouette).

Medium:

Archival pigment print / 35mm photographic positive image

Size:

38 x 46 cm / 2.4 x 3.6 cm
Please scan the QR code
Please scan the QR code

‘Whether you have your own Jaturi or not, if you have your own scarecrow (or not!), how do they live?’ 

Jaturi is the given name of my scarecrow work. This name substitutes a scarecrow which resembles a human being, and came from a Korean word (the mother tongue of mine) which means some leftover pieces of cloth or scrap of something. Yes, ‘Jaturi’ itself is humble. Something minority, thrown away, left out, remained, and is on the verge. Usually, it is pronounced as rather strong ‘ZZA-turi 짜-투리’, than soft ‘JA-turi 자-투리’. 

Think about the way you treat your PIZZA crust. I would like to announce the poignant word ‘Jaturi’, opposed to the fashionable ‘Garment-Bark’. Its spirit can be reversed into something gleeful. 

The work is made of Jaturi from our day-to-day life. Sample garments scavenged from fashion designer, Inok Chung.

Jaturi (Small Figure) 30 x 20 x 5 cm

Jaturi’s Grand Adventure (Garment-Bark) Dimensions variable


Jaturi is a part of the ongoing series, SIL-oo-ET (Silhouette).

Medium:

Cyanotype on sample garments, QR codes, barcode labels, single-use packaging, mixed grain, threads, yarns and mixed media

Size:

Dimensions variable
(D)ISCOVER BRITANNIA, 257 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 1LR
(D)ISCOVER BRITANNIA, 257 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 1LR

‘EXCLUSIVE DEALS! Please see our amazing souvenirs. For 5 days only. I have to shut down this shop next month, because of Corona. No tourists, hence clearance.’ 

Conversations from (D)ISCOVER BRITANNIA, Notting Hill.


Fantastic Souvenirs 1+1 is a part of the ongoing series, SIL-oo-ET (Silhouette).

Medium:

Paint on fridge magnets and papier-mâché