Artist Miseon Yoon (b. 1979) majored in textile art at Hongik University was introduced to the art scene with her patchwork in 2009. The pieces of fabric that are dyed and cut into different shapes represent portraits and these were sewn over and over again countlessly.
According to the artist, she was under pressure from her family when she was young because she did not fit into the society’s ideal standards. Under the pressure of comparison and contempt with violent language, she was left with a deep internal wound and engulfment of unresolved anxiety. Her patchwork, which nails the questions and concerns about good and evil, human nature, and the anxiety followed along, symbolizes the extremely desperate and tragic self. After suffering a shoulder injury from the Face-to-Face solo exhibition in 2017 in which she worked painfully with anxiety as its source, she finally attempted herself to be free from the patchwork.
Did the painful work itself act as a way to relieve anxiety for the artist? While experimenting various executions of her artwork, the artist tried to redirect herself from her serious pain and distorted gaze on others into positivity.
Aspects of Cubism can be found in her artwork which visualizes analytical interpretation by gradually adding delicate aspects to the shapes of the objects. The organic figures which compose the characters in the artwork and the spheres as the major component of the expression, the Balance Ball, is the artist's own language when dealing with anxiety. Her change was reflected in responding to the fate of human beings of anxiety and fear with a flexible, spherical attitude toward life. The Balance Ball that flows freely on the paper is the artist's unique point of view that reveals the emotional darkness in the purest form. The work with graphite in pencils captures emotions of the various people with outstanding details that acrylic or oil painting cannot display.
In short, through her solo exhibition Balance Ball presented at Gallery Kabinett in 2022, she has proven herself with a more sound work of art. Audience can find a number of human figures in her artwork and the artist named the character with short hair as “bob” as in bob cut, and presented it as a signature character identified with the artist. By resolving the burden of life of anxiety through calm and persistent work, the artist, who has become stronger inside, introduces her “bob” character as a path to consolation by transforming the “pain to endure” into “hopeful patience”.