Right & Left: Sangyoon Yoon
Sangyoon Yoon’s exhibition 《Right & Left》 explores the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious through the spatial opposition of right and left, the most basic order perceived by symmetrical bodies. In psychology, consciousness and the unconscious correspond to reason and intuition, a fundamental relationship in art. Art communicates through language and reason, yet it uniquely depends on intuition. Intuition takes form through reason and draws energy from raw, primal material. Language is only a system of differences, not substance itself, but without it, substance cannot be expressed. While the world is increasingly governed by codes and language, painting remains closely tied to physical sensation and material presence.
The word “right” means not only the right side or right hand, but also correctness, justice, normality, order, and truth. “Left” stands opposite. Although right and left differ only by position, society turns this difference into symbolic meaning. In Yoon’s work, the horizontal distinction of left and right shifts into a vertical one. Left aligns with the unconscious, right with consciousness.
The spontaneous, uncorrected drawings in the exhibition reflect the eruption of the unconscious, while the paintings, structured around the psychoanalytic model of id, ego, and superego, are more conscious. Still, consciousness always exists in tension with the unconscious. For the artist, who was trained to abandon left-handedness, drawing with the left hand helps strip away learned technique.
Drawing with the left hand calls up what has been suppressed. The framed drawings appear disconnected, with unclear sources and distant relationships between image and title, yet they function for the artist as truthful shorthand records of the unconscious. They contain fragments of theater, fables, literature, daily life, and social conventions.
Though inspired by films, books, or news, they are transformed beyond recognition. These ambiguous yet urgent fragments form the ground of art. Compared to drawing, Yoon’s paintings feel closer to everyday scenes, yet their collage-like mix of reality and imagination remains equally irrational.
Painting, like drawing, is a stage, but one more deliberately constructed. At the base lies water, above it crowds focused on symbolic forms. In psychoanalytic terms, water represents the id, the crowd, the ego, and the top layer the superego. Despite this structure, the scenes resemble everyday life, suggesting these layers differ not in quality but in position. Trees often appear as connectors between underground, ground, and sky. The water of the unconscious is not dark or mysterious but shallow and reflective, like a sunlit pool. It mirrors ordinary order rather than hiding chaos.
The ego appears as groups sharing attention. During his studies in the UK, the artist encountered many social groups, each with clear boundaries. These groups protect insiders but exclude outsiders. For the individual, identity becomes unstable and shaped by relationships with others. Modern society pressures individuals to be interchangeable, often reducing them to anonymous producers or consumers. Identification with groups becomes a matter of survival.
Referencing Julia Kristeva, 『Power of Horror』 notes that rigid identities form through oppositions such as positive and negative, even though these oppositions are not absolute. Contemporary art often tries to break fixed notions of the self. Yoon’s drawings destabilize the subject, allowing the self to return as “other.” The superego in his work appears as idealized models of beauty, such as animals, people, or objects. Yet these ideals are tied to personal trauma and social discipline.
For the artist, the superego reflects society’s symbolic order of right and wrong, experienced as both oppressive and sacred. In his paintings, these ideals sometimes appear translucent, stripped of physical weight, like Platonic forms rather than concrete objects. However, these models are thin and ordinary, often floating close to everyday reality. Menial spatial separation already undermines rigid hierarchy.
The three dimensions: id, ego, and superego, intertwine rather than remain fixed. Water, like the unconscious, lacks time and structure. Its restless ripples suggest the gap and tension between consciousness and the unconscious. Yet these states are not stable. In Yoon’s work, the unconscious does not lie beneath reality but exists alongside it, like a mirror or interface. Boundaries blur, hierarchies weaken, and structures open.
Still, some structure remains because art always balances raw material and form. Institutions tend to standardize form and neutralize difference by turning art into codes. Despite this, a gap remains between society and art. Art should expand freedom to society, not be confined by it. Artists turn to the unconscious to resist control and regulation.
The unconscious cannot be fully contained. It is timeless, formless, and powerful, like magma. It is the material ground of imagination and symbolism. In Yoon’s work, this material energy appears most clearly in drawing. His paintings act as vessels holding still water, registering subtle shifts between coㅇnsciousness and the unconscious. True art requires holding both forces together, like wings moving left and right in order to fly.
Lee Sun Young (Art Critic)