Yeji Lee: Vivid Sensations - Jackson's Artwork Weblog

Yeji Lee received the Oil Award in Jackson’s Artwork Prize this 12 months together with her work The Temperature of the Night time. On this interview, she discusses how her sensory recollections have formed her world, the significance of a pocket book over a sketchbook for her observe, and the rhythm of evenings spent over shared meals.

Above picture: Yeji in her studio

Josephine: Might you share the story of the way you turned an artist and inform us extra about your inventive background?

Yeji: I truthfully don’t suppose there was ever a single second once I determined to turn out to be an artist. Wanting again, it feels extra like I simply adopted the circulate of issues than made a acutely aware determination. Totally different pursuits and experiences have regularly collected over time, and one way or the other that path turned the life I reside at this time. There are occasions when portray feels easy, and others when it feels nearly unattainable, however I genuinely get pleasure from working by way of each.

One among my earliest recollections is wanting a toy violin once I was very younger. My dad and mom wouldn’t purchase it for me, so just a few days later I made one for myself out of cardboard. It wasn’t actually concerning the violin itself. Every time there was one thing I longed for however couldn’t have – a pet canine and even an imaginary world – I’d make it myself. Wanting again, I realise that creating issues was by no means only a passion. It simply felt like essentially the most pure means for me to grasp the world and make invisible issues really feel actual.

Once I take into consideration the place my work comes from, I usually return to a different childhood reminiscence. Whereas my mom was pregnant with my youthful brother, we spent a number of months in Busan, South Korea, the place my grandmother labored in a standard market. I used to wander by way of the slim alleys by myself whereas she was working. The adults there at all times appeared completely happy to see me, however what has stayed with me most vividly isn’t a specific individual or occasion. It’s the environment – the fluorescent lights reflecting by way of colored plastic canopies, the altering gentle shifting by way of the market, the heat that appeared to exist each time individuals gathered collectively, and the sensation {that a} area may nearly have its personal temperature and rhythm.

It wasn’t till a lot later that I realised how deeply these recollections had formed the way in which I see the world. Finding out portray at Tokyo College of the Arts, and later on the Academy of Tremendous Arts Munich, helped me perceive these early experiences extra consciously. Today, I don’t suppose I’m actually portray individuals anymore. I’m way more fascinated by what occurs between individuals, for instance, the traces of sunshine and time that stay in an area after everybody has gone. Wanting again, I realise these recollections have been quietly guiding my work all alongside. And I feel I’m nonetheless attempting to grasp them by way of portray.

Josephine: What does a typical working day within the studio appear like for you? Do you might have any essential routines or rituals?

Yeji: I normally go away dwelling between 8:30 and 9:00 within the morning and spend about an hour travelling to my studio, nearly like commuting to an workplace. Portray is such an unsure factor; it could go wherever, and a few days it looks like something is feasible whereas different days nothing appears to work. I feel that’s why I’ve at all times preferred having the rhythm of an atypical working day. It offers me one thing secure earlier than I step into the uncertainty of the studio.

The very first thing I do is make a cup of espresso. If there are any pressing emails, I’ll reply to these first, however I by no means like dashing straight into portray. I normally spend just a little time simply settling into the studio earlier than I start. I feel I want that small transition earlier than I can actually focus.

I don’t actually have any rituals relating to portray. I not often make preparatory drawings, and what I work on normally will depend on how the work really feel that day. Generally I transfer between a few canvases, however I usually stick with one or two relatively than leaping between a number of various things. There’s nearly at all times music enjoying, though what I’m listening to modifications on a regular basis.

I normally go away the studio round 9:00 or 10:00 at evening. For me, it’s by no means actually been about having the right routine. It’s extra about exhibiting up day-after-day and giving the work sufficient time. I’ve realised that work simply want time. The longer I stick with a portray, the extra I discover.

Josephine: Which supplies or instruments may you not reside with out?

Yeji: If I had to decide on only one software, it could be a large Italian-made hog bristle brush, about 12 cm throughout. I’ve been utilizing the identical one for therefore a few years that the picket deal with snapped a very long time in the past, however I nonetheless use it nearly day-after-day. I don’t suppose I may exchange it.

As a result of it’s so huge, I naturally paint with my complete arm relatively than simply my wrist. That modifications the way in which I transfer throughout the canvas. Generally it softens the floor, and typically it leaves daring, bodily marks behind. I like that I can’t utterly predict which one it’s going to do.

Oil paint itself is simply as essential as a result of it offers me time. I can go away a portray, come again to it the following day, scrape one thing away, or let a floor slowly construct over weeks. Recently, I’ve turn out to be way more fascinated by permitting the paint to maintain a few of its personal character as an alternative of attempting to regulate each mark. That outdated brush jogs my memory to go away sure issues alone, and very often that’s when the portray begins telling me one thing I wasn’t anticipating.

Josephine: Do you’re employed from a reference? Inform us extra about your course of.

Yeji: I do use references, however in all probability not in the way in which individuals would possibly count on. Most of them are images that I’ve taken myself whereas strolling by way of cities or spending time in locations that stick with me. The largest change in my course of has occurred over the previous few months. I used to make digital collages from these images earlier than I began portray, however I don’t actually work like that anymore.

Today, images really feel extra like reminders than directions. I nonetheless depend on them, however I don’t really feel any want to remain devoted to them. Earlier than beginning a big portray, I normally make a number of small sketches with colored pencils and watercolours. That’s the place I search for the composition and the colors.

After that, I make a small oil examine earlier than shifting to the ultimate canvas. Paint has a means of adjusting the picture, so I want to grasp what occurs as soon as it turns into paint. Very often, one thing seems at that stage that I couldn’t have deliberate.

By the point I begin the ultimate portray, I regularly cease trying on the references altogether. From that time on, I’m largely responding to what’s taking place on the canvas. I not often find yourself precisely the place I believed I’d, and that’s normally when the portray begins taking me someplace I wasn’t anticipating.

Josephine: Do you commonly draw or hold a sketchbook? If that’s the case, how does this inform your work?

Yeji: I wouldn’t actually say I hold a sketchbook within the conventional sense. I do draw fairly commonly, however normally on unfastened sheets that I tear out and work on individually, particularly once I’m attempting to determine a composition or color relationship. What I do hold is identical pocket book I’ve been utilizing for years. All types of issues find yourself in there – drawings, color mixtures, fragments of writing, titles, and phrases or concepts that catch my consideration. Generally it’s only a single sentence that I don’t wish to neglect. I’m going again to it on a regular basis. It’s humorous how an concept that didn’t appear crucial on the time can abruptly discover its means right into a portray months, and even years, later.

For me, drawing has by no means simply been about recording what I see. It’s a part of how I feel. Over time, I’ve realised that pocket book in all probability tells me extra about how I feel than how I draw. Wanting by way of it, I usually discover that I used to be already desirous about a portray lengthy earlier than I truly began making it.

Josephine: Have you ever ever had a interval of stagnation in creativity? If that’s the case, what helped you overcome it?

Yeji: Sure, many occasions. Wanting again, I’ve realised that inventive stagnation normally occurs once I’ve reached the top of a specific means of working, even when I haven’t but found what comes subsequent. Generally my work has already modified internally, however I’m nonetheless attempting to color in the identical means. That hole creates a way of resistance.

I don’t suppose there’s a single factor that helps me overcome these intervals. Greater than something, I want time. If potential, I bodily take away the portray from my studio and go away it someplace I can’t see it for a month or so. Creating that distance helps me cease attempting to resolve the portray by power.

Once I return to it, one thing has usually shifted. Not essentially within the portray itself, however in the way in which I see it. The issue that when felt unattainable to resolve usually now not feels essential, or I can lastly recognise one thing that I couldn’t see earlier than.

Wanting again, I’ve realised that this has occurred nearly each time my work has begun to alter. These intervals are nonetheless irritating whereas I’m in them. However afterwards, I can normally see that they have been taking me someplace I couldn’t recognise on the time. They’re not a break from the method. They’re a part of it.

Josephine: Are there any particular artists or mentors who’ve impressed you?

Yeji: The artists who’ve impressed me emotionally aren’t at all times the identical ones I flip to whereas I’m portray. Since I used to be a youngster, I’ve been deeply drawn to the work of Käthe Kollwitz and Horst Janssen. Even earlier than I understood why, I used to be moved by the emotional honesty and psychological depth of their work. That feeling has stayed with me ever since.

Once I’m portray, I usually have a look at artists reminiscent of Pierre Bonnard and Peter Doig. I love the way in which they construct area by way of color and lightweight, and the way environment can exist with out counting on a transparent narrative. I don’t essentially wish to paint like them, however they nonetheless remind me of what portray can do.

One other essential expertise got here once I was 20, visiting the Rothko Room on the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum in Japan. Till then, I had largely thought of portray as one thing you checked out. Standing in that room, I realised a portray could possibly be skilled bodily, and that the boundary between the portray, the physique, and the encircling area wasn’t as mounted as I’d as soon as thought. That modified the way in which I take into consideration portray, and it’s nonetheless one thing I carry with me.

The one that has influenced me essentially the most, although, is my mentor, O JUN. Greater than educating me easy methods to paint, he modified the way in which I have a look at my very own work. He usually talks concerning the distinction between the portray you attempt to make and the portray that reveals itself as you’re making it. He taught me to concentrate to the issues that seem earlier than I can clarify them. I nonetheless take into consideration that each time I paint.

Josephine: What have been you desirous about or exploring on the time you made The Temperature of the Night time? What impressed it, and the way did it come to be?

Yeji: The Temperature of the Night time got here out of a time once I felt my work was starting to alter. For a number of years, a lot of my portray had centred on the lives of working girls in conventional markets in South Korea. These work have been deeply related to my childhood recollections and stay an essential a part of my observe. However round 2024, I started to really feel that my very own experiences have been altering, even when my work hadn’t fairly caught up but.

After learning in Germany in 2022, I began returning each summer season to spend time with my associate and his household. Steadily, these visits turned an essential a part of my life in addition to my observe. Each time I went again, I felt like I used to be noticing one thing new. I wasn’t merely discovering a special place; I used to be turning into conscious of a special rhythm of life, totally different colors, and other ways of spending time collectively. In some unspecified time in the future, I realised I wished my work to replicate these experiences as an alternative of holding on to a course that now not felt utterly true to the place I used to be.

One of many strongest impressions got here from sharing night meals with my associate, his household, and mates in Munich. What stayed with me wasn’t the meals itself, however the rhythm of the night. Rising up in an East Asian family, I used to be used to meals the place all the things was shared directly, and conversations naturally adopted that tempo. In Germany, I skilled one thing fairly totally different: meals unfolding course by course, conversations lingering over wine, and candlelight quietly reflecting throughout glasses and plates as time appeared to decelerate. I turned fascinated by the environment that appeared by way of that slower passage of time.

I’ve at all times been fascinated by how meals reveals tradition. I wasn’t actually attempting to color a dinner desk. I wished to color the invisible environment created by individuals sharing an area – the heat, presence, and traces of time that stay lengthy after the night has ended. Wanting again, I feel The Temperature of the Night time quietly marked the start of the work I’m making now.

Josephine: What made you submit this piece to Jackson’s Artwork Prize?

Yeji: I’ve at all times regarded for alternatives to indicate my work exterior Japan. I’ve at all times hoped my work may journey past Japan, so once I got here throughout Jackson’s Artwork Prize and noticed its assist for rising artists from world wide, it felt like the best place to use.

I submitted a number of work, however The Temperature of the Night time was one I actually wished to incorporate. By then, I already knew my work was starting to alter, and this portray felt like an essential turning level for me. It was shifting away from particular person figures and turning into way more concerning the environment and the traces individuals go away behind.

It was additionally one of many first work the place I consciously pushed the materiality of oil paint additional. I turned way more fascinated by letting the paint stay energetic on the floor as an alternative of utilizing it merely to explain a picture. On the time, it simply felt like the best portray to ship. Wanting again now, I feel it naturally pointed in the direction of the course my work has continued to take.

Josephine: The title The Temperature of the Night time provides one other layer to the viewer’s expertise of the portray. Might you discuss concerning the position that sensory experiences play in your work?

Yeji: I feel sensory expertise has at all times been on the centre of what I do. I’m not likely fascinated by portray a specific place or second. What stays with me is what stays after an expertise has handed.

By the point I start portray, the expertise itself has already turn out to be a reminiscence. I’m now not working from direct commentary, however from the bodily sensation of remembering. That’s why I usually use phrases like temperature, humidity, or presence. They’re not metaphors for me. They describe one thing I genuinely expertise.

For me, temperature isn’t merely about heat or chilly. It’s the bodily sensation of reminiscence. It contains the emotional distance between individuals, the density of the air they create collectively, the humidity of a summer season night, the standard of sunshine, and the rhythm of time shared inside an area. All of these issues turn out to be a part of how I bear in mind a spot.

I’m not attempting to recreate a reminiscence or illustrate these sensations. I’m attempting to present them a bodily presence by way of portray. If somebody can recognise one thing of their very own by way of the portray, even when it’s utterly totally different from my very own reminiscence, then I really feel it’s doing what I hoped it could do.

Josephine: The judges described your portray as ‘a feat in wealthy, energetic paint dealing with’. How a lot of that vitality comes from a deliberate method, and the way a lot emerges by way of the method of portray?

Yeji: On the time I made The Temperature of the Night time, I used to be nonetheless working fairly carefully with digital photograph collages as references, so I normally had a reasonably clear concept of the general composition and the place I wished the portray to reach. In that sense, the vacation spot was usually deliberate.

The journey, nevertheless, was a lot much less predictable. I’ve at all times valued likelihood in portray. The best way the paint strikes, the layers construct up, or surprising textures seem is one thing I don’t attempt to management utterly. Oil portray usually jogs my memory of stirring a big pot from the underside. Layers that appear hidden proceed to affect the ultimate floor, very like elements quietly shaping the depth and richness of a dish. I feel that’s the place the vitality comes from.

So I normally start with a reasonably clear picture in thoughts, however I intentionally go away room for the portray to shock me. Among the most essential selections occur as a result of the paint does one thing I wasn’t anticipating. That’s in all probability what retains portray fascinating for me.

Josephine: Are there any new methods or concepts you’re excited to discover utilizing the supplies out of your prize?

Yeji: One of the vital thrilling discoveries for me has been working with Michael Harding oil colors. Till now, I’ve primarily painted with Japanese oil paints, which I actually admire for his or her consistency, refinement, and management. Working with Michael Harding paints felt fairly totally different. The colors stay extremely wealthy, however the materials itself feels way more fast and bodily. It made me way more conscious of the paint as a dwelling materials, not simply one thing I exploit to make a picture.

On the identical time, my very own work has additionally began to alter. Just lately, I’ve turn out to be way more fascinated by leaving room for likelihood – for permitting brushstrokes, texture, and the pure behaviour of the paint to stay seen as an alternative of attempting to regulate each floor utterly.

I don’t suppose I’m actually searching for a brand new method. What I’m fascinated by is responding extra to what the paint needs to do. I’m attempting to belief the paint just a little extra and see what occurs once I cease asking it to do precisely what I would like. That’s in all probability what I’m most excited to maintain exploring.

Josephine: How did it really feel to maneuver by way of the levels of the competitors and win the Oil Award?

Yeji: I used to be genuinely completely happy to obtain the Oil Award, and I’m very grateful for the popularity. Everytime you enter a contest, there’s naturally part of you that hopes to go so far as potential. I had a robust perception in The Temperature of the Night time as a result of I knew it represented an essential shift in my work, and I used to be curious to see how it could be obtained.

What meant essentially the most to me, although, was that the portray was recognised exterior Japan. For a very long time, I’ve wished to share my work internationally, so having it chosen by a global panel of judges felt like an essential milestone. It gave me confidence that the course my work had been shifting in may join with individuals past the place the place it was made. Greater than something, the award didn’t change the way in which I work. It merely gave me the arrogance to maintain going within the course I used to be already heading.

Josephine: What’s arising subsequent for you?

Yeji: Over the previous few months, I’ve felt an actual shift in each my work and the way in which I take into consideration portray itself. Proper now, I’m most enthusiastic about persevering with to observe this new course in my work. It looks like I’m firstly of one thing, which is each thrilling and just a little unsure.

This November, I’ll even be participating in a collaborative challenge between artists from Germany, Switzerland, and Japan, initiated by my mentor, O JUN. It’s a challenge that’s been growing over the previous three years, so I’m actually trying ahead to lastly seeing it come to life. I’m placing a number of vitality into getting ready for it for the time being.

Past that, extra alternatives to exhibit exterior Japan are regularly starting to look, which I’m very grateful for. Greater than something, I’m excited to see the place my work take me subsequent.

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