Central to Young In Hong's embroidered works, performance, sound installations, and drawings is the theme of 'equality'. Often drawing from modern Korean history, Hong engages with various social spaces and individual experiences to reconfigure existing structures and historical narratives.
Read MoreFor Young In Hong, the traditionally feminised mediums of sewing and embroidery act as a means to unveil narratives and experiences that have been historically undermined. In the 'Statue Series' (2008), partially painted works of embroidery depict different civic statues from Hong's domestic and international travels, while Double Encounter (2009) sees Hong stitching faces of well-known figures onto transparent fabric. From these, the disproportionate focus on men and their accomplishments throughout history is made apparent, both in Korea and globally.
Burning Love, commissioned for the 2014 group exhibition Spectrum Spectrum at PLATEAU Museum in Seoul, is a large-scale embroidered work based on an aerial photograph of a candlelight protest. In 2008, the South Korean government reversed a ban made on the import of U.S. beef following the Mad Cow Disease epidemic of 2003. In response, thousands of civilians took to the streets in protest. Despite its scale, the event attracted little media attention, which Hong subverts in her work by delineating the presence of each individual as a stitched candlelight.
In the 40 works belonging to 'Prayers, No 1-39' (2017), Young In Hong reduces photographs lifted from post-war Korean newspapers to simple, black lines embroidered on white cotton. The work's abstract lines comprise barely recognisable traces of the original images, which were photographed during a turbulent period in modern Korean history, marked by government censorship and mass demonstrations for democracy.
Hong invited musicians to perform the abstracted embroidery as musical scores, combining textile and sound. Referred to by Hong as 'photo-scores', the work was interpreted differently by each performer, suggesting the breadth and diversity of individual experience—and, therefore, the inadequate claim of state-sanctioned historical narratives as representative of all experience.
'Equality', as Young In Hong writes on her website, is 'about expanding the perceptual space between A and B, which allows us to explore the relation between the two.' Her performances often result from collaborations with both professionals and amateurs alike, disrupting norms regarding hierarchical authority.
5100: Pentagon, which was first presented at the Gwangju Biennale in 2014, for example, recruited its performers through internet tutorials. Though they shared the same choreography, which was inspired by the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, the subjective experience of the participants resulted in each performing a different iteration.
Hong similarly introduced an element of novelty to Un-Splitting (2019), a performance conceived in collaboration with choreographer Stephanie Scheubeck. Hong placed performers in unexpected locations across the first floor of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul. The participants, assembled from diverse age and gender groups, performed movements that combined the actions of birds with poses derived from historical photographs of female labourers.
Young In Hong holds a PhD and MA in Art from Goldsmiths, University of London (2012, 2000), and an MFA and BA in Sculpture from Seoul National University (1998, 1996). Hong is currently a reader at Bath Spa University in Bath, England.
Young In Hong has exhibited internationally. Selected solo exhibitions include Young In Hong: The Moon's Trick, Exeter Phoenix, Exeter (2018); A Fire that Never Dies, Cecilia Hillström Gallery, Stockholm (2016); Young In Hong: 6/50 fig-2, ICA Studio & Theatre, London (2015); Image Unidentified, Artsonje Centre, Seoul (2014); City Rituals, Art Club 1563, Seoul (2012).
Young In Hong's group exhibitions include 2020 ASEAN-ROK Culture Innovation Summit: Encounters, Asia Culture Centre, Gwangju (2020); Korean Eye 2020: Creativity & Daydream, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, and Saatchi Gallery, London (2020); Pick Me, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan (2019); Rethinking Craft: Between Studio Craft and Contemporary Art, Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul (2017); Burning Down the House, Gwangju Biennale (2014); Nora Noh, PREESEUM, Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul (2013); The Song of Slant Rhymes, Kukje Gallery, Seoul (2013); Playtime, Cultural Station Seoul 284, Seoul (2012).
Sherry Paik | Ocula | 2021
