Jayoung Yoon


Jayoung Yoon is a South Korean artist known for her interdisciplinary work using human hair and other natural materials. Yoon draws inspiration from diverse sources, including Christian and Buddhist philosophies, as well as other spiritual traditions. Her artistic practice spans various media, including sculpture, performance, video, and two-dimensional works. Yoon lives and works in Beacon, New York, seeking to infuse her life and work with a closer connection to nature.

Early life and education

Yoon was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Hongik University in Korea and later moved to the United States in 2006 to continue her education. She received a Master of Fine Arts in fiber arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan in 2009.

Work

Themes and inspiration

Yoon's art is rooted in exploring invisible thoughts, perception and the body to achieve a state of mindfulness. Yoon views human hair as a symbol bridging the physical and spiritual realms, often using it as her primary material. She employs lengths of hair hand-knotted or woven together to create semi-transparent sculptural forms and two-dimensional geometric images. These intricate structures that can take countless hours to create. The delicate and tactile nature of the medium demands attention and presence, as the work can shift as a result of subtle changes in airflow.
In addition to human hair, Yoon works with other natural materials such as feathers and milkweed seed fiber. She has recently incorporated traditional Korean horsehair weaving techniques into her works, connecting her contemporary practice with cultural heritage.

Sculpture

Yoon's sculptural works explore themes of interconnectedness, emptiness, and life cycles. Web of Life, a large-scale work with a 9-foot diameter, is composed of tiny hand-made knots, intertwining hair from immediate and extended family members to represent their connection in life. The Form and Emptiness series features woven mesh boxes with geometric forms, hung from the ceiling. Each cradles a different geometric shape at its heart, creating a visual dialogue between form and void, structure and absence. The Skull, a hair-adorned sculpture made of hair and glue, represents life cycles and mortality.  The Offering Bowl #7 uses her mother's hair, expressing the cycle of life and acknowledging the influence her mother played in her art.

Performances and video art

Extending her artistic practice, Yoon creates performance pieces and video art that further explore themes of meditation, mindfulness, and the connection between body and mind. Her performances frequently involve subjecting herself to the elements for extended periods, aiming to achieve a state of empathetic mindfulness. In her film Listen to the Mind I, a nine-minute video condensed from 10 hours of footage, Yoon lies naked in a white cube. A hair funnel from her ear remains unaffected by sunlight while her skin burns, symbolizing mental resilience amid physical change. Her short videos explore the reductive essence of meditation, as seen in works like Non-Ego, a video installation featuring eleven large pots and the artist's body. Another work, Umbicality '''', explores the connection between sky and body, air and skin, using her hair to bridge between nothingness and form. In 2012, Yoon presented Clearing the Mind, a performance piece at Deep Tanks gallery, further demonstrating her exploration of meditative states through artistic expression.

Critical reception

Critics describe Yoon's work as delicate and unsettling in its beauty, thought-provoking and contemplative. Her artistic approach is viewed as phenomenological,  investigating perception and the body. The tactile and fragile nature of her chosen medium, human hair, is often emphasized as a key element in her work. Critics note how this medium demands attention and presence from the audience, with subtle changes in airflow potentially altering the viewer's perception of the piece. Yoon's distinctive ability to blend asceticism and aesthetics is highlighted, creating works that draw viewers into deep contemplation.

Selected fellowships and grants

  • Joan Mitchell Fellowship
  • AHL Foundation Artist Fellowship
  • MacDowell Fellowship
  • Ora Schneider Regional Residency Grant
  • BRIC Media Arts Fellowship, Brooklyn, New York
  • The Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art

Selected artist residencies

Selected exhibitions

Yoon's work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows at museums, galleries, and art institutions across the United States and internationally.

Solo exhibitions

Perceiving Emptiness, Rose Lehrman Art Gallery, HACC, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Sowing Seeds of Emptiness, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, New York      Seeing the Threshold, San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, San Jose, California      Ephemerality, Theo Ganz Studio, Beacon, New York

Group exhibitions

Don't Touch My Hair, Hannah Traore Gallery, New York, New York Interlacement, The Korea Society, New York, New York The Day After, Culture House, Washington, D.C. Hair: Textures of Belonging, Studio 3 Gallery, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom Materialized, Hampden Gallery, UMass Amherst, Massachusetts Fiberart International 2019, Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Hand/Eye, Form & Concept, Santa Fe, New Mexico Sutures, Marc Straus, New York, New York Multilayered: New Prints 2018/Summer, Print Center New York, New York The ArtsWestchester 2018 Triennial, ArtsWestchester, White Plains, New York Bronx Calling: The Fourth AIM Biennial, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, New York CICA Experimental Film and Video, Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, Gyeonggi-do, Korea Portal Art Fair, Federal Hall, New York, New York Threaded, Flatiron Project Space, School of Visual Arts, New York, New York The 11th Busan International Video Art Festival, Busan, Korea East and West: Asian Influence on Contemporary American Craft, Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH Sacred Vision, Separate Views, Tibet House US, New York, New York Show me your hair, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea Containment, Garfo Art Center, Salt Lake City, Utah Hair Tactic, Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, New Jersey

Collections