We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Se Young Yim a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Se Young, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I think it’s an artist’s role to touch people’s innate senses and to do that, I tend to observe daily life and dreams keenly. I try to find unnoticed feelings under the surface of life through them. I think art, as a means of communication, needs a certain strangeness to leave an impression without explanation in a short moment. I try not to lose the strangeness to convey an indescribable feeling. I am inspired by dreams, everyday scenes, and strange creatures.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am an artist based in New York. I was born and raised in South Korea and moved to the U.S. to study art. I mainly paint and sculpt. I was a fan of comic books, so I naturally developed a visual interest in storytelling. Studying fashion design in college was also fun, but I felt eager to create something that existed as a pure narrative without a practical function. At that time, I visited many art museums and galleries in New York, and they drove me to jump into contemporary art. After two years in art school, I have been working as a painter and sculptor. My work has been exhibited in Tutu Gallery, Subtitled.NYC, Visionary Project, Trestle Art Space, New York, GlogauAIR, Berlin, CICA museum, and upcoming project for OF Gallery, South Korea.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I am also still learning and developing my practice, but I believe the most important thing is openness and curiosity. You can be taught practical skills or knowledge yourself. I learned a lot about sculptural techniques from YouTube. However, attitude and interest are the things only you can foster. As an artist as a job, it is hard to keep your own creativity in a materialistic world. Sometimes, it seems meaningless without economic values. You can find your way if you are genuine in your curiosity and keep openness.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
I made kinetic sculptures, and It was a new venture for me. I’ve made sculptures with fragile materials, wax or sugar, which can melt, and it’s difficult to maintain the state of the sculptures. At the same time, I wanted to make sculptures that were active as themselves. At that time, I visited the park and encountered turtles. I thought their movements reminded me of people. I believe it would be interesting if, when I experiment with sculpture, which would be a direct metaphor for placing. I made sculptures that resembled rocks and put DC motors in them so they could move. This series of sculptures was first shown at Trestle Art Space.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.instagram.com/sey__yim
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sey__yim
Image Credits
Turtle (Tortoise) or Rock, 2023, dimension variable, dc motor, paper, plaster, concrete, foam
Turtle (Tortoise) or Rock, 2023, dimension variable, dc motor, paper, plaster, concrete, foam
Cheeks, 2024, dimension variable, DC motor, stainless ball, resin, acrylic on mixed media
Hopeful Labor, 2019, video
A Seat for Two, 2021, foam, paper mache, wax, 20x20x80 inches (50x50x203 cm)
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