Chunghee Yun

Region: South

Website: http://www.chungheeyun.com

City / State: Richmond, VA

 I capture feelings of affection and repulsion towards men. Bugs hover in the pictorial space as an image of an unpleasant feeling. Penis-shaped shapes mingle with women’s bodies. Is this my phallic fantasy? Sometimes penis shapes become the symbol for men’s ego, as well as power, patriarchy, violence. Cats can be seen playing with these phallic objects. They become a surrogate for performing my desire; cats are shameless and curious about everything.

Shame and embarrassment are at the center stage of my work. Although my characters don’t seem to feel shame, they are placed in shameful and embarrassing moments. It is important that my characters be nude, since Adam and Eve lived in innocence in the Garden of Eden and experienced infinite pleasure until they ate the forbidden fruit. The biggest shock of the “fall from grace” was their nudity, and they end up wearing leaves to cover their genitals, a sublimation of shame disguised as a cure. The nudity of my characters represents a resistance to God’s punishment and proposes the writing of a new Genesis.