Bumpy Days: Seoyoon Yi

From July 5 to August 3, 2023, Gallery Chosun will present a solo exhibition by Yi Seoyoon, titled 《Bumpy Days》. Through painting, the artist observes the world and herself, engaging in a kind of dialogue with it. In a world that is smooth and slippery, she seeks to create small, awkward “bumps” that disrupt the flow. While it is impossible not to move in step with the polished world, she sometimes feels a sense of vertigo. Highly developed capitalism and rationalism, along with devices like smartphones that compress everything into a single screen, dull our awareness of the “here and now”, making it feel as if we are standing on empty air. Investments looking toward the future, procedures that move one step ahead, vividly replayed memories, and images of places never visited; time blurs, and the present has no fixed place in our gaze. 

For the artist, working is “a space that creates bumpy time”. It is a way to sense the “here and now”. In front of the canvas, she paints, erases, sweeps, and covers repeatedly, layering shapes, colours, and gestures. This process captures the fleeting, unrepeatable sensations of the moment; the dialogue between brush, paint, and canvas, and becomes what she calls a “bump that lets you feel the ground you stand on”. For her, painting is “a series of trial and error” and “the most vivid way to experience the present”.