Yoojin Ok
Fluttering through ragged streets, the feeling of cobblestone indented into shoes as feathers tickle your neck. A column of honeybees pulled from your throat, stingers clutching to the sinews in my neck.
Mad. What a beautiful name.
There are worlds within worlds within worlds. My work focuses on the intangible ones, the intrusive, bothersome worlds clinging to our skins. The ones we share, and the ones we never see. I’ve slowly come to realize that the microscopic worlds contained in our cells, our organs, our bodies, are worlds that desire to be captured. They’re worlds that are pervasive and constant, always there like the intrusive thoughts constantly overwhelming my mind. And yet, I find a certain fascination with these intrusive thoughts. The grotesque, obsessive ideas our brains create on their own. And the biological, intimate nature of them. We are, at our base, microscopic and fascinating. I work to capture these microscopic worlds, to interpret them, and interact with the intangible.
My art attempts to bridge the supposed gap between art and science, examining them as inclusionary, inseparable mediums. Data and processes are just as abstract as paintings. Drawing is just as systematic as the organ systems in our bodies. Through biofeedback sensors, magnetic particles, and fiber, I attempt to reconfigure innate human processes and mathematical concepts into visual forms of existence. My work shows the parts of existence we don’t see. It interprets what we feel. By using data directly collected from the body, I encourage the audience to interact with their intangible selves. The viewer sees their body acting, existing, beating, pulsing, and with that recognition, they see these microworlds captured through my work. And so, the microscopic becomes macro. The inaccessible becomes accessible. The invasive, interesting. My works often require audience participation because, without the human, my works don’t exist. So, offer yourself to the work, and look at this binary mirror. Please, look. And ask: how much about yourself do you really want to know?
