What does home mean to you?
Artist Yoon Ji-hee poses in front of her art piece made out of old jeans, at the Alien Galley in the National Assembly complex in Seoul, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Jung Da-min
Artist creates cityscapes with old jeans
By Jung Da-min
What does home mean to you? For 25-year-old artist Yoon Ji-hee, home is the only place in the world that embraces her.
“I've been living on my own since leaving my parents' home for university,” Yoon told The Korea Times during an interview at the Alien Gallery in the National Assembly complex in Seoul, Tuesday. “It has been tough living alone in a strange area away from my parents, and taking all the responsibilities on my own. I felt overwhelmed, especially in forming connections with new people, and thought I was bad at everything except drawing. But home was where I could truly be myself and find relaxation.”
To share the feeling of relaxation that she gets from the idea of home, she started to make art pieces out of old clothes, especially old jeans she got from her friends, to make the forms of houses and alleys. Her works often depict residential areas where narrow alleys run between low-rise housing, rather than high-rise apartment complexes.
“I had lived in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, with my parents where they still live, before living on my own for undergraduate and graduate studies. My works often depict the scenery of my hometown and some residential areas of Seoul I've found since living here,” Yoon said.
“High-rise apartments seem boxy and I could not see how people live there all in the same format. But for residential areas filled with old houses and alleys I could observe how people decorate their own homes, with gardens or other ornaments. I especially like how people encounter each other in alleys as they come and go.”
As for using old jeans as materials for her works, Yoon said there were two reasons: First, jeans are sturdy and durable materials so it could deliver the idea of a home as a shelter; and second, old jeans from her friends could also deliver the idea of community.
One of her pieces, her graduation work for undergraduate studies, especially delivers some encouraging messages with letters she made by slicing clothes thinly, such as “It is okay to be tired,” and “you can do it.” Yoon said, “Those were messages that I wanted to tell myself.”
Yoon's art made from fabrics is now on display at the Alien Gallery until the end of this month.