Arts + Literature Laboratory is proud to present recent works by NY-based artist Kyung Eun You. The exhibition contains two bodies of work between the Project Space and Kort Mezzanine that will be on display from January 6 through February 5, 2022. An artist reception will be held on Friday, February 4, 2022, 6:00-9:00pm.
Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday, 12-5pm. Exhibitions are free and open to the public.
NOTICE: We are closely monitoring Dane Public Health's orders related to gatherings and will adjust event details accordingly to help protect the health of our community. Please check back for the latest information.
Artist Statement
I make images of what linger in my memories as a way of understanding myself and the world surrounding me. I question which memories stay and why. Mainly they are about past experiences I have hard time expressing verbally - depression, family issues, panic episodes and dreams. It is often difficult to work with the memories that have given me so much pain. However, in the process of, or after making images into prints, paintings or animations, the memories are no longer remembered as painful or sad as they were.
where are we now, 2018 - 2019
where are we now is a series of 25 linoleum cut prints, and screenprints that portray the aftermath of my mother’s passing in Los Angeles in 2009. Images depict moments in my struggle with grief, depression, and my dad’s alcohol abuse, especially as an immigrant family. Repeated imagery reflects the recurrence of events - how I dealt with the frequency of my dad’s alcoholic behaviors; and the cyclical return of the memories after moving away from home.
For each linoleum cut print, a set of four blocks were printed in two matrices - one single image in a comic strip format, and the other in repetition of the strips. Some images simply repeat 27 times while others transform throughout the multiple reduction printing process to emphasize the time of passing. Reductive states are printed next to previous states resembling a look of film strips. For screenprints, images were digitally drawn in a similar manner.
where are we now was made into an artist’s book, published by Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY in 2019. In the book, pages circle around from the beginning to the end, and back to the beginning, like how images on each page repeat, and like how these memories have come back to me over and over again.
Untitled Dream, 2020 - ongoing
Most recently I have worked with images from dreams. Dreams are personal stories that can be shared with others without much difficulties than actual events, and they seem to say something about the dreamer. Dreams may have significant meanings behind, or nothing at all at the same time. I am interested in what visual elements I subconsciously select from reality and edit in my dreams. Some dreams repeat for years and I am wondering why. Some dreams make sense and some don’t. The composition of these paintings follow similar process as dreaming - I select elements from what has stayed in my memories after I wake up, compose two dimensional images with distorte time and space from the selections. This series is also studies of acrylics painting as a medium, colors and perspectives.
