EXHIBITION
ARTIST
- 1,025: With or Without Person, 2003-2008, 2025, acrylic on wood, dimension variable, 367 pieces from a total of 1,025.
Yun Suknam centers her work on women, motherhood, and the marginalized communities of society. In 2003, she came across an article about a woman named Lee Ae-shin, who devoted her life to caring for abandoned dogs. Moved by this story, Yun visited Lee’s remote hillside home, where she spent years alongside hundreds of rescued animals. This encounter inspired a five-year-long project in which the artist meticulously carved, shaped, and painted 1,025 wooden figures of dogs. The artist breathed new life into these once-abandoned dogs by using wood as her material – a material that is both firm and tender.
Born out of a long and arduous process, <1,025 With or Without Person> transcends beyond the mere representation of animals, delving into the narrative of women’s caregiving and nurturing connection to vulnerable and fragile beings. By exploring the intrinsic value of caregiving and interdependent relationships between Ms. Lee Aeshin and her abandoned dogs, the artist intertwines her feminist perspective with the realms of life and nature.
During GIAF25, 367 of these sculptures will be displayed in the courtyard of the historic Gangneung Daedohobu Government Office. Standing amid these wooden figures, each gazing gently at visitors, audiences are invited to reflect on the profound act of selflessness and compassion.
A pioneer of feminist art in Korea, YUN Suknam (b. 1939) has spent over four decades creating works that illuminate the realities of women’s lives in society. She taught herself how to paint in her forties, and has been a key figure in contemporary art since her first solo exhibition in 1982. YUN’s early works were deeply autobiographical, exploring themes of motherhood and personal history through reflections on her mother’s life. Over time, her artistic scope expanded to include identity, life, nature, and women’s rights, continuously redefining how women are represented in art. In recent years, she has been immersed in reinterpreting historical female figures in her works.
YUN’s major awards include the 8th Lee Joong-sup Award (1996), the Prime Minister Prize (1997), the 29th Kim Se-choong Sculpture Award (2015), the Order Of Civil Merit Moran Medal (2019), and the 23rd LEEINSUNG Art Prize (2022). Her major solo exhibitions include the 23rd LEEINSUNG Art Prize Recipient Exhibition Yun Suknam (2023), Women of Resistance, Becoming Historic (Hakojae Gallery, 2021), Expressions of Contemporary Asian Artist – Special Exhibition by Yun Suknam (Tokushima Prefectural Museum, Japan, 2016), and SeMA Green: Yun Suknam – HEART (Seoul Museum of Art, 2015). Her major group exhibitions include The Friendliest (Incheon Art Platform, 2024), The birth of a new woman (Zaha Museum, 2023), Jeju Biennale 2022 Flowing Moon, Embracing Land (Jeju Museum, Jeju, 2022), and Deoksugung Project 2021: Garden of Imagination (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, 2021).
Website: http://yunsuknam.com/
