[Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art]

The Daily Sacrifice for My Life, Or My Heroes 1

From April 25 through May 17, 2020, the Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art will present The Daily Sacrifice for My Life, Or My Heroes 1, an exhibition featuring the works of Eun-Young Cho, one of Youngeun Creative Studio’s 11th series artists-in-residence. Eun-Young Cho looks at the world around her and portrays the world through her work. In this exhibition, the artist focuses on her daily life in her studio space, where she spends most of her time. This exhibition is a part of the Youngeun Artist Project.

The artist Eun-Young Cho found a similarity between the mythological Labyrinth story and herself as an artist, staying in her studio for a long time. In 2016, her work started to take on this Labyrinth theme, and she divided the concept into three references: Daedalus, who created a space called the Labyrinth, the Minotaur monster that was trapped in the Labyrinth, and Icarus, who wanted to escape from the Labyrinth. She projected herself into each story and looked at the world from inside the story, with herself in the characters' shoes, viewing from these perspectives. The artist built her own Labyrinth, the studio, where she creates her artistic work. Inside the Labyrinth, she spends her days with her art, but at the same time she feels limited and dreams to escape, like Icarus did.

"My studio, the place where my days accumulate, became my identity. I built it more carefully, constructing firmly and reaching higher, just as Daedalus did. The wall that I built to achieve became my Labyrinth and I was locked inside that identity. I wander in the Labyrinth every day. In the end, am I the Daedalus or the Minotaur, or was I just a mere sacrifice offered to the Minotaur?" (From the artist's notes)

In reality, however, as escape from the studio is impossible, instead she endures the sacrifices that fill her daily life in the real world. "Daily Sacrifice". The subjects that became the theme of this exhibition literally fill the artist's daily life. Remnants of leftovers, those who sacrificed themselves, are things like apple peels left after eating, grape stems, peaches that only leave a seed, a pile of tea leaves sitting as traces after drinking tea, roots of green onions left behind from cooking, and other things. These are portrayed as “objets” and themes of the paintings, looking like sculptures carved at the artist's studio. Artist Eun-Young Cho recorded the traces of these remnants with a pen on tracing paper, with its semi-transparent characteristic. The viewers who see the completed work in the exhibition hall feel as if they are viewing a scene in the wash painting. The reality of what is drawn in the paintings are dried debris left behind, but they look incongruously elegant, like a beautiful orchid illustrated in an ink wash painting.

"The wall built by the accumulation of my days became my identity. But I was ... trapped inside the Labyrinth that I built. I cannot step outside. I wander inside the Labyrinth. I am the labyrinth itself, and am also a Minotaur trapped inside. And the sacrifices... The grape stems and tomato stems left here are the sacrifices. If viewers look closely, they see that these are more elegant than plum branches and more lonely than an old tree. They are the hidden heroes who could have become Theseus." (From the artist's note)

These "daily sacrifices" sacrificed themselves to enrich the artist’s everyday life, and then they fill the exhibition hall as “objets”, reborn as paintings. This exhibition expresses appreciation for and a dedication to what is consumed in our daily lives.

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