Miyeon Yi

Born in Seoul, South Korea, 1995

Lives and works in London, England

“My painting depicts small events in one's home. The composed image contains collected objects and one’s obsession towards them. These objects are always uncertain, taking their cues from our own ever-changing impermanence. The division of spaces within the picture and the flattening of the depth serves to convey the story of daily life as perceived from the standpoint of memory and the uncertainty of experience. I think of these images as cinematic, or like a theatrical staging of possibilities, questions and becoming.

In his latest book, Heaven on Earth, T.J. Clark brings in the idea of “transformation”, while looking at Giotto’s The Rising of the Lazarus. The miracle acts as a trigger for transformation of the world. The narrative flows smoothly until our gaze stops at the two types of figures, one in a green gown full of suspicion and doubt, the other, the two men nonchalant, deeply concentrated in their labor. They are so absorbed in their task that they have turned their head away from witnessing the miracle of Lazarus being brought back to life. They are the ones who bring the glimpse of reality into the scene. What I’m drawn to are these rebellious witnesses. The cat and the woman depicted in my works have a similar function; they are figures whose miracle is their spontaneity, turning away from the weight of drama, experiencing freedom as well as ennui. These figures tell us that we no longer live in a world that is as strongly tied to a dominant idea (religious or otherwise) which determines how one’s life should be. Instead we own freedom.

Freedom allows us to decide what to make of our life but also guilt. Are we living as one should be? Doubt never sleeps. The characters of my paintings are thus often in a state of distraction, innocence and guilt. The anxiety of emptiness in our lives, the urge to fill the silence with information, as well as the unconscious hope for transforming the world we live in. We do not know how to truly rest in peace. But yet in that same demonic force, the possibility for a righted life is posed as a task. This experience of how both death and life, change and transformation, reflects in objects and the way we interact with them has become more ubiquitous and poignant after the events of the past few years.”