Interview: Yukyung Chung Luca Curci talks with Yukyung Chung during BODYSPACES, first appointment of CANVAS INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

Yukyung Chung is a multidisciplinary artist and designer from South Korea who works with digital media, technology, sonic experimentation, painting, and performance. She broadens her perspectives by incorporating various new technologies based on her physical movements. She has a BFA in painting from the University of Kyung Hee and is now pursuing an MFA in Digital +Media at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI.

Luca Curci – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most? Yukyung Chung – The starting point of my work in my MFA focuses on how my intuition functions. I believe that I’m a strong intuitive person and wanted to explore that by translating sound into painting. I collected and mixed sounds from nature and then improvised paintings by interpreting the sound. This process naturally leads to the question: what if there’s an element which controls my intuition? I counter intuition here with rules. I add rules into the interpretation process such as my location on the canvas, shapes and methods of drawing, and the direction of my body. Through this process, I wanted to explore how my movement and results change when the rules are added. Most of my works are based on movement and performance. The biggest influence on my process was the experience of live painting during the ‘Paint intuitively’ event at the RISD Museum in September 2022. I reproduced my work Intuition and Rules for my first performance in front of a live audience.

LC – Which subject are you working on?
YC – My work explores the process of how my movement changes when a rule is added. I do this by translating one medium to another: from sound to painting, movement into graphics as well as sound. Through each translation, I want to convey the mechanization of humans. I think we live around rules, within a system of control. The rules could be applied socially or psychologically. The more the number of rules, the more we need to follow up. Through the process of being the subject by myself who follows the rules, I wanted to express how I am controlled and restricted when there are more rules I need to follow.

LC – Did your style change over the years? In which way?
YC – I used to do paintings and video works in my undergraduate. When I reminisce about the past, I think I was restricted by the tools that I used just because that’s the medium that I was familiar with. After realizing that, I tried to break the rule that I felt comfortable with. So I’m trying to get used to using and incorporating different mediums such as sonic experimentation and design. I think if the theme I want to express to others is on the same line, the more experimentation with various mediums, the better. Last year, I tried to use photography, sound, and graphics as a medium. I captured my movement and translated each into graphics like drawing each movement with lines and dots based on each skeleton of my body, and also I translated each graphic into sound. Through this experience, I realized that I enjoy each process, even if it took more time. 

LC – Which art themes do you pursue? What is your preferred subject, if there is any?
YC – My current interest and subject are expressing the theme of my movement. In my work, a movement is a tool of expression. I’m considering how to express what I want to convey to the viewer through movement experiments with various mediums. As I said earlier, my interest these few years is to make myself a subject to be controlled by the rules, like a machine. I don’t exactly know what the next step is, because I’ve been thinking about using different mediums such as motion tracking, and motion graphics with the same theme. 

LC – How do you choose your subjects? Is it a reasoned or an instinctive process?
YC – For me, reason and instinct are combined when I choose a subject. But I think both ways come from visual references that I study and the environment around me. I skim them when I’m struggling with what to choose for the subjects. Also, since I’m really intuitive person, I would say there’s a more instinctive process. 

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the exhibition’s theme?
YC – The exhibition theme “bodyspaces” is directly connected to my work. I explore how my movement reacts differently according to my intuition and rules on canvas through painting to better understand the relationship between humans and society, and body and space. Also, I found that the meaning of ‘canvas’ changed on your website. I agreed with the explanation that canvas is a common ground for artists to express themselves. For me, the starting point of expressing myself is on canvas. Experimenting on the canvas, it connected me to broaden my perspective to communicate with others. Also, it was the starting point that I feel interested in expressing with my movement. I wanted to say that I feel grateful to be a person who can convey my own thoughts to the world.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
YC – Yes. Definitely. First of all, it’s a good opportunity to present your work to wider audience. Showing artwork to an unspecified major is important for the artists. I think ITSLIQUID GROUP gives an opportunity to lots of artists who want to show their work to the public. I know your group is holding various events of art, architecture, design, and fashion, like Artist of the Year, and Photographer of the Month. Also introducing lots of news and interviews as well. It means there are lots of opportunities for artists to communicate with other people. This is really powerful. 

LC – Did you enjoy cooperating with us? 
YC – I enjoyed it. Thanks for reaching out. It’s my first time exhibiting my artwork in Europe. I wish I could go there and see other artists’ work in person someday.

LC – What do you think about ITSLIQUID Platform?
YC – I think it’s a strong Platform not only domestically but also internationally. We can reach to artist’s work who come from Italy and other countries through your platform. Also, we can communicate with others not only in person but also online, because of the group’s large digital presence.