Yeesookyung

Yeesookyung was born in 1963, and currently lives and works in Seoul, Korea. Working across video, installation, sculpture, drawing, the interdisciplinary artist emerged on the art scene in the 1990s, as part of a wave of young Korean artists experimenting with a wide range of mediums to express personal experiences in a rapidly modernizing Korea. Best known for her acclaimed Translated Vase series, the project began with the remnants of disposed vases by a master Korean potter. The artist took the fragments of broken ceramic shards, seaming them together with epoxy and later hand-painting them with 24-carat gold leaf, resulting in simultaneously voluptuous yet fragile forms. Yeesookyung’s amalgamation of Korean historical canon with elements of Western modernity is entirely idiosyncratic. Through this cycle of destruction and re-creation within each crevice of every porcelain fragment, Yeesookyung embeds the collective identity of Korean history and culture, re-interpreting the final piece for a wider western audience.