[Materials]
collected materials from street in Busan, South Korea
epoxy paints, wooden box
8.9×6.2in / 22.7×15.8cm, 2017
From 2016 to 2017, Yang continued her art practice in Busan which is the second biggest city in South Korea. At that time, more than 100 towns were being redeveloped or planned to be redeveloped.
In the old town of Busan : 'Gamman - dong, Choryang , Oncheonjang ' that was disappearing due to redevelopment, she scraped, gathered and re-assembled remnants of flaking paint, old wallpaper, rusted metal and the flotsam and jetsam of demolished and vacated sites, reconstituting them in the studio in acts of remembrance; time and memory sealed in resin.
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Yang's 'Materials
series' is an amalgamation of the diverse, the distant, and
the disregarded.
Formed of
the lost fragments of urban life that Yang rescues before
their inevitable disappearance – remnants of a building’s
outer walls,
scraps of wallpaper from an interior, the remains of antique
tiles –these often
silent, ignored objects are here magnified from the
mundane,
framed to acknowledge the immensity of the
intimate. Yet
what we see
in Yang’s works could easily have been taken from the space in
which they
hang.
Yang’s works,
however, show how the past, present, and future are
fused in the very materiality of walls.
-
Rafael Schacter
( creative director, curated Tate modern, Somerset House ) 2017
Installation view @ Boan-Inn, Seoul, 2017
Work in Progress, Busan, South Korea 2016
Photo: Youngmoon Ha
Materials, Detail cuts
Photo : Élisa Murcia-Artengo
‘Materials, Busan + Berlin’ 2017-2018 Collected variety of materials from streets (Berlin and Busan, South Korea), resin, wooden box Size: 120H x 95W x 7D cm
47.2H x 37.4W x 2.8D in
Details _ ‘Materials, Busan + Berlin’ 2017-2018
Memorial Box in Rhodia no.2 Collected variety of materials from the historical place 'Rhodia' in Besancon, France, Resin, a wooden box 27x17x6d cm_ 2019
Memorial Box in Rhodia no.1 Collected variety of materials from the historical place 'Rhodia' in Besancon, France, Resin, a wooden box 20x13x6d cm_ 2019
Leftovers Peeled paints and outer skins from walls of different buildings, Collected variety of materials from streets in Berlin, resin, metal 6x110cm(each)_2019
<Details>
 The silver box (Materials series)65 x 54 x82 cm / 25.6 x 21.2 x 32.3 infound objects from The Silver Building in London, resin, 2017
 
- 'Stolen Times' , Jazoo Yang, 2016
While developing projects related to the issues of redevelopment, I kept an interest in what the original senses of human being might be like within the rapid changes of a city. The speed of city life is running much faster than that of a human body, thus it enforces its speed on people living in the city. The situation, even maybe a violent one, may damage delicate aspects of human senses. When I opened the seal and first entered an abandoned house in the center of Busan, I rather felt something more of nature than of violence of the city. The unexpected particular atmosphere, smell, sound, and visual elements began to stimulate my sensations very acutely. The more I experienced the traces left behind, kept rekindling the acute senses, the more I began to think it was as if I had been there and an emotion of longing rose to my mind. Feeling such an emotion at a strange place was something very peculiar. What is a longing? What is this sensation of longing when I face those unfamiliar places during my work with old alleys and buildings?
The verbal form of ‘longing(그리움)’ in Korean is 'to long(그리다)’, and its etymology seems to share with ‘writing(글).’ It seems to imply that the essence of writing is to express longings. Some scholars say ‘writing(글)’ and ‘language(말)’ have a common origin, and it is likely that human language is centered on the longing. The Greek used to look for the essence of language in ‘poiesis (creation, poetry)’ not in ‘techne (craft).’ Poetry is a language to express a longing. Tracing back the origin of longing brings us to the human language. The state of psychology, often called ‘nostalgia’ in the West, is a common emotion for the whole humanity. It is said that most people get nostalgic more than once a week, and about half of them 3 to 4 times. Something special to the emotion of nostalgia is that we all feel warmth in there. We feel more warmth in nostalgia. A study shows that people get more nostalgic on cold days, and another claims more people feel nostalgia in a colder room. If we could find physical comfort from memories, it could mean that in the ancient days of evolution human beings may have been able to endure better while looking for food and shelter. A recent study also concludes people may have more sincere attitude toward life through memories that nostalgia helped them feel more worthy.
The project at the ‘Empty House*’ of Choryang(Busan, South Korea) let me, personally, have a special experience from a familiar feeling of longing, which in turn helped me have a more active attitude toward cities.
(* The ‘Empty House’ was originally built in a Japanese style in the 1930’s as part of the Foundation’s then several houses, had been used as a private house until 1990’s, after which it had been abandoned for over 30 years until it was demolished in 2016 as part of a redevelopment business around Choryang-dong, Busan. Before it was torn down Jazoo Yang carried out researches on and around the spot, and held an exhibition with installation works composed of materials found there, which led to the ‘Materials’ series where she showed collected objects and materials during the project. )
The Empty House, Choryang Projecthttps://www.jazooyang.com/p/choryang-project.html
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@ Materials series 2017
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