Spirituality & Physicality

An ecopoetic statement on the collective relationship with the environment, YAGORIA draws attention on abusive deforestation, plastic waste and pollution. Reinstantiating the figure of Baba Yaga and drawing from local traditions of apotropaic practices and ecospirituality, Yagoria reclaims Ritual as means to re-establish a more profound and reflexive relationship with the “interconnected real”. It explores three sites of tension between pristine/natural systems and abusive human intervention, where the body acts as a territory for the inter-dance between equilibrium and disruption.

This mosaic depicts strips of microplastics dangling in the stomach of a belly-up whale---an all-too-common phenomenon. One of the powerful aspects of mosaic is its materiality, which allows me to take the same objects and materials that people encounter in their daily lives and help the audience see them in a different light (here, plastic utensils, bottle tops, bread tags, plastic bags, etc.) and make that direct connection with the global challenges. My hope is that my work walks the line between beauty and destruction, welcoming the audience but also making them slightly uncomfortable. For instance, maybe in this piece you first notice the delicate, lace-like tendrils. But upon closer examination you realize they are completely made of bits of discarded plastic. I think that place of gentle discomfort can be a very productive one for having difficult conversations about the big challenges of our day.

The heroes of the series "Werewolves" are mythological, religious and art characters bearing distinctive proteistic features. The constant metamorphoses, loss and finding of own person, change of physical appearance, historical and social role, mask or image becomes the defining principles in their biography, forms round them changing, fluid, game reality. During my studying of entomology at the biological faculty of the university I devoted a lot of time to the study of complete and incomplete metamorphosis of insects − and photography, with its charm of documentary, allows me to accumulate my scientific, theatrical and design experience in one work. The series was shot on a black-and-white film and printed on a color paper. Sometimes I apply multiple exposure, and also introduce external images into the frame ─ graphics, scientific and technical schemes. Printed on various media (paper, textile, transparent membrane), they help to achieve the effect of collage, an unexpected transition from volume to plane.

This work is a homage to the famous "Ophelia" by J.-E. Millais, where the heroine is depicted floating down a forest stream. As you know, the artist painted Elizabeth Sidall lying in the bath (where she almost drowned from hypothermia once), but I surrounded her not with wild flowers, but with more modern materials related to the water element. Maybe the movie "The Matrix" interfered with my memories of this masterpiece of preraphaelism. The graphics printed on transparent film allowed to introduce the animal structures and technical drawings into the picture. Prize winner of Bio-Art Contest, Seoul, 2018.

Spirituality & Physicality is dominated by surrealist works that sublimates the physical object with a manifest artistic approach, using the imagination as a link to the spiritual dimension. Encompassing drawing, performance, video, and photographic artwork, the works dialectically addresse themes including but not limited to internalization, biology, and mythologies, as the artists liberate us from the present and travel through the timeline of the past and future in the spiritual world. Participating artists: Alina Tofan, Julie Sperling, Van O, Youju Kang, and Zhao Jiajing.

In isolation during a pandemic, the perception of time changes significantly - compared to the usual rhythm, we find ourselves in a state of some sensory deprivation, cause-and-effect relationships that give us a sense of the passage of time collapse. And digital gadgets are almost the only sensors that conduct impulses to the brain from the outside world and prevent us from finally sliding into immortality.

My artworks are created through spontaneous, small decisions made at the tip of the pen. I would let myself get lost in the intricate maze of curvy lines, with no sketch or planning but with an enigmatical design in mind that becomes clear only at the end. One of my artworks, “Enlightenment I” is a good representation of this process, where merely myriad parallel lines eventually weave into a blooming flower.

I seek beauty from my linework, especially from its organic and continuous quality. My lines explore negative spaces, controlled expression, and improvised delicacy at a micro level. My lines also represent the process-based nature of my art, as they are the visual tracking of my wandering in my subconscious mind and the fluctuation of emotion within. The lines eventually reach the deepest place in my mind and unfold in the visual realm of reality, showing the entire train of thought in its wake.

Back to the Ocean is a sound composition exploring the bodily and spiritual connection with the ocean. The work is inspired by a near-death-experience (NDE) of drowning in the open water of Saipan. Upon crossing the borderline of losing consciousness, an ineffable sensation of belonging and boundaryless emerged to the artist as if going back to the mother’s womb.

The sonic narrative is structured into three stages: immersion, deconstruction, and reformation. The materials used in the composition are predominantly recordings of water and the human body, captured with hydrophone, contact microphone, and condenser microphone.

A sound composition in three stages. The first stage presents underwater sounds with playful interactions between recorded materials. The second stage uses granulated sounds to deconstruct the body and memories, followed by a bubbling sonic bath. In the third stage, the composition presents a feeling of boundarylessness and being a fetus. Materials used include recordings of water and the human body, captured with hydrophone, contact microphone, and condenser microphone.