A Lullaby Touching the Ground

A solo exhibition by Yae Jee Min

The Latent Space
4150 N Elston Ave
Chicago, IL 60618

Opening reception:
September 4th @ 12-6pm

Bio:
Yae Jee Min is an interdisciplinary artist. She holds a MFA and BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in psychology from Boston University. Using intersected methodologies of painting and craft, she investigates nostalgia through abstraction and materiality. Through whimsy and childish haphazard zones, she creates spaces in which memories, nostalgia and identity both engage and entangle with one another. Whether it is dealing with specific moments of domestic spaces, sleep deprivation, mental illness, and femininity; her work confronts these spaces of familiarity with whimsicality to allow viewers into the moment safely, allowing polemic thoughts to be buffered by notions of blanket warmth. Her work has been exhibited internationally and nationally including Seoul Museum of Arts, Torrance Art Museum, and DfbrL8r Gallery.

Artist Statement from Yae Jee Min:
Chaos and high confusion is a rampart part of me. Due to being disoriented, there is a constant need for comfort. This longing for stability is central to my work. However there is no linear method of comfort. Often what is safe does not bring peace, but more pandemonium. Thus I struggle to find a true relief. Comfort and discomfort play off one another like a ping-pong ball as I sway back and forth in a jumbled array. Maybe that is why there is always anxiety hidden amongst the saccharine pastels color palate of my work. Searching and striving towards something that is in the realm of unreal, is always is central goal for me. It is fruitless. Knowing that there is no definitive, but in this continual endeavor, the urge to make objects that are in ways lacking, I see tenderness. This I want and know, to be tender.
When making, my work is often imperfect and impractical. This intrigues me. Despite the constant anxiety and pursuit of an ideal, impracticality defines me. There is strong interest in this labor of defectiveness. It is a dogged pursuit of a fake realness. The thought and time invested into the objects, becomes enough despite any failures in the piece itself. Maybe this longing is why I make items that are highly familiar to a child. In childish tackiness of my items, I get seduced by a glittering of innocence. Items of comfort, that is instant and visceral, are important. The smoothness of the fabric, that holds the promise of memorized warmth is integral. Through this pursuit, my objects become vessels, carriers for what was and is.

Pieces I have made reflect these ideas of juxtaposition in regards to a falsity of a safe haven. I try to create something that is enchanting, disguising the fatality. This endless longing will not be satisfied. It is even clear that there is no solution. But like a child, I cling blindly.

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: A Lullaby Touching the Ground, Chicago, Irving park, The Latent Space, Yae Jee Min