Jin-me Yoon is a Korean-born, Vancouver-based artist. Since the early 1990s, her lens-based practice has critically examined the construction of self and other in relation to her own direct and inherited history, as well as within broader geopolitical contexts. Unpacking stereotypical assumptions and dominant discourses, Yoon’s work has examined gender and sexuality, culture and ethnicity, citizenship and nationhood. Adopting a wider and wider lens over time, her practice has become a deep investigation into entangled local and global histories existing at specific sites within the context of transnationalism.Discerning the related themes of Yoon’s art from her lecture and online resources, decide on themes to explore in her practice through specific artworks. Select for discussion 3 works (or series), focussing on works shown by Yoon in her recent presentation. Describing each work, discuss how concerns you identify as central preoccupations of her practice are addressed, embodied, represented and communicated to viewers by that artwork. Note the issues and histories engaged. Imagining the experience of the work, comment on the effectiveness of the strategies and media used by the artist.
Reflect on her use of autobiography, personal experience and familial history, as well as ways Yoon draws upon and engages wider national and transglobal histories. Where relevant, you could consider the presence of the artist in photographic and video works, staged for the camera, perhaps commenting on how this has evolved in her work. You could also observe the effects of the artist’s use of her own family members and individual in her Korean community in artworks
You might give attention to media used: photography, video, single- and multi-channel- video installation (and postcards), and to her practice of working in series, thinking about effects of these choices.Through Jin-me Yoon’s Art NOW talk and the online resources available to you, identify central themes and concerns of Yoon’s art. The statement from the artist’s website, which appears at the beginning of this assignment, points to defining aspects of her practice. As the exhibition project launched at the Musée d’art de Joliette in 2019 (Living Time from Away) and the national tour of Here Elsewhere Other Hauntings has progressed, online announcements of the exhibition and curatorial texts that articulate themes of her art have been produced by participating galleries, programming accompanying the exhibition at various venues has explored these themes, and critical commentary emerged in visual arts media.
