Artist
Nayoung Jeong
Nayoung Jeong (정나영) is an artist and a researcher who established a distinct artistic practice that explores the boundaries of cultural displacement, focusing on the experiences of unstable identity, and cultural isolation. Her work predominantly employs clay as the primary medium, using its transformative properties to create performance and installation art. By emphasising the process in her work, she encourages viewers to evoke their own memories and engage in self-reflection, ultimately fostering a sense of familiarity with the unfamiliar. Through her art, Jeong seeks to explore new methods of interaction among the body, materials, and the audience, transcending the material limitations of the medium to convey broader social and cultural meanings. This exploration is a central theme in her ongoing artistic inquiry.
Q1. What inspires the artist?
Nayoung is inspired by the experience of cultural displacement from living in diverse cities and countries. This immersion in new environments fuels her creativity, with emotional and sensory responses to these settings deeply influencing her work. Each new culture and social norm enriches her perspective and compels her to explore personal and collective narratives. The continuous feedback loop between her art and audience reactions drives her ongoing journey of discovery and adaptation, making each project a unique exploration of identity and connection.
Q2. What does being a female artist mean?
Nayoung incorporates her body into her work to emphasise the importance of the female form, not merely as a physical entity but as a conduit of profound meaning. The female body represents both the tangible and intangible aspects of femininity, encapsulating strength, resilience, and the capacity for creation. Through this approach, she aims to create a dialogue that resonates with both personal and collective experiences, highlighting the complexities and multifaceted nature of being a female
artist.
Q3. How does Korean culture influence artist's art?
Nayoung's arts are rooted in her upbringing within a traditional family engaged in cultural rituals. Growing up in a traditional family, she was introduced to the Korean Tea Ceremony at the age of four. She remembers how the process of the tea ceremony and the atmosphere during that time. This always reminds her of her background as well. Also, as she started her artistic practice, she chose to study Korean ceramics, embracing traditional methods and techniques. The discipline and precision required in these ancient practices resonate with her artistic approach, where each piece becomes a tribute to her heritage. The natural materials prevalent in Korean culture are evident in her work. Moreover, the repetitive, labour-intensive process of working with clay mirrors the rituals of the tea ceremony, both demanding a mindful engagement and a deep connection with the material. This intersection of cultural tradition and artistic creation allows her to explore and express the intricate layers of her identity. Incorporating these cultural elements into her art, she aims to create pieces that reflect the rich cultural heritage of Korea while inviting contemporary interpretations and dialogues.
Q4. Who are the female artist role models, and why?
Nayoung admires Louise Bourgeois as one of her female artist role models. She finds Bourgeois' life as a female artist profoundly inspiring, particularly her resilience in balancing motherhood and her artistic career while maintaining an unwavering commitment to her creative practice. Bourgeois continued to create until her death, illustrating a lifelong passion and an indomitable spirit. Nayoung Jeong resonates deeply with Bourgeois' ability to merge personal experience with universal themes. Bourgeois' works often delve into the human body, exploring themes of identity, trauma, and memory. This incorporation of her body into her art aligns with Nayoung Jeong's own practice, where she uses the body as a central element to convey deeper meanings and narratives.
Q5. What projects are currently being worked on?
Nayoung is engaged in several scholarly projects that utilise interactive methodologies and community-based participatory approaches. Her research focuses on cultural displacement within one's own culture, exploring the paradox of experiencing cultural shock within familiar settings. She investigates how emotional dissonance and alienation affect individual and collective identities, creating a shared understanding and dialogue around these experiences. Her work blends art and social investigation to address the complexities of belonging and identity.
The Right to Destroy Them (나를 파괴할 권리), 2022
Video based on performance 13 mins 1 sec
Perpetually unsettled, Nayoung drifts from place to place, absorbing and leaving behind a multitude of emotions
that accumulate and ultimately dismantle her former self. Nayoung heightens her sensory awareness to create psychological scenarios as artworks, accompanied by the metaphorical sound of her clay-casted body breaking. Thiscontinuous process of creating and deconstructing another version of herself allows her to confront the labour of her emotions and recognise it as her unequivocal right.
Nayoung’s artwork reawakens layers of embedded emotions and memories through sound and action, sharing psychological states and feelings within the process of creating and destroying the casted bodies.
Catch or Throw (잡거나 던지거나), 2020
Photos based on the performance with mixed clay, printed on organic cotton linen (2nd edition), 100 x 150 cm each
‘Catch or Throw’ blends performance and materiality, challenging viewers to discern whether they are witnessing a dramatic scenario or a real act of violence. During the liveperformance, Nayoung stands against a wall
as clay is thrown at her for an hour. She tries to catch the clay, which accumulates on her body and surroundings. As the performance unfolds, the dwindling clay supply raises questions: is the artist a passive subject being targeted, or is she controlling the act by metaphorically catching and throwing the material? The ambiguity invites reflection on action and perception.
'The Thing for Something' captures Nayoung's raw, transparent state, preserving the emotions of that moment purely for her. Infusing materials with memories, she constantly contemplates emotional connections. Nayoung encapsulates fragments meant solely for herself within small frames. Her delicate, transparent fragments - ceramic tiles of complete thoughts and memories of cultural displacement - are bound together with red thread.
The Thing for Something (날 위한 조각품), 2024
Ceramics, wood, thread
21(w) x 26(h) x 7(d) cm