Yeo Jin Lee (HL)

Curatorial Rationale

As I entered the IB Visual Arts, the only theme that came up with my mind was “Social Issues”. Living in a society, it’s inevitable to face various problems that occur across the globe. Some I personally experienced, some I witnessed, and some I heard about through other references. Constant discovery of these issues grasped my attention and inspired me to want to spread awareness of them through my ability. I knew this theme was going to motivate me to put all my passion and effort into each of my artworks because issues from the global society have given my mind disturbance and confusion several times. Therefore, this theme is considered as a great deal to me. Before I created my artworks, I researched different social issues that are mainly detrimental to how our society is shaped today. I made sure my research was focused on the people who internally struggle due to the issues. The objective of my exhibition is to spread awareness to the viewers who aren’t conscious about what the society is going through. In order to accomplish this, various mediums and techniques were explored. I experimented with Pen and Ink, Oil Paint, Acrylic Paint, Mixed Media, Photography, Digital art using photoshop, and Freestanding Assemblage. Each artwork I created symbolizes different social issues that are significant to our modern society: depression , racism, insecurity, poverty, child abuse, pollution, abortion, unemployment, world peace and conflict, and addiction.

The Lonely Path, inspired by Shannon Bauer, is an acrylic painting of landscape bringing an empty and gloomy atmosphere to present a depressing-like mood to my audience. Waves of Skin, inspired by Sara Maese, a digital artist who patterns undressed people by only using certain colors. I used a similar style to portray people with different races working together to create a harmony. Can I Love Myself?, inspired by Paul Hutchinson, contains two broken mirrors, each reflecting a different girl, to indicate how their insecurity has deconstructed them due to people pointing their fingers at them and judging them. Unfortunate Streets, inspired by a watercolor artist Dean Mitchell, paintings of areas where the unfortunate people live in Cebu. Fearing the Monster, inspired by a digital artist Jeszika Le Vye, is a digital art piece of a little girl who’s a victim of child abuse. The message I want to give in this artwork is that we shouldn’t take advantage of people just by power. Human Contamination is a representation of how humans pollute our nature which isn’t only environmentally harmful but also socially harmful. Pain to Loose, inspired by Aliza Razell, is a series of digital art on four different photographs. The purpose of this series is for the viewers to witness the juxtaposition between an adult being a mother and a teenager being a mother. This will allow the viewers to sympathize with teenagers who can’t abort their babies because it’s illegal which makes them feel ashamed and embarrassed. Pressure and Distress, inspired by Ben Heine, represents how in my home country Korea, unemployment is a huge issue that harms the country socially and economically. Serene, inspired by Claude Monet, is an impressionism art piece where it allows the viewers to think that there could have been peace and calmness in the world if there’s no war and conflict. Finally, Craving is a pen and ink artwork where it portrays different kinds of addiction our society has: addiction to smoking, addiction to drugs, addiction to gambling, addiction to drinking, and addiction to love. These addictions can brainwash humans to have inappropriate behaviors.

I planned to organize my artwork depending on what the painting is focused on. The right side of my exhibition held the artworks that focused on a specific person, such as the two women on my Can I Love Myself? art piece, and the teenager and adult from Pain to Loose, the abused child from Fearing the Monster, and the girl from Craving. These artworks generally give a shocking sensation to the viewers. On the other side, I decided to exhibit more calming artworks that are mostly landscapes such as the Lonely Path, Unfortunate Streets, and Serene. Finally, in the middle of my exhibition I held Waves of Skin which is neither shocking nor calming.

The continuation of these problems may be the potential to cause waves of depression and distrust in the community. I believe that spreading awareness of these social issues is very important since the only way to prevent them or lessen their severity is for the people within the community or outside the community to change.