Joohyun Pyune: A Hundred Unfolded Sighs

 
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Artist(s):


Title:


    A Hundred Unfolded Sighs

Exhibition:


Creation Year:


    2004

Medium:


    Dye-sublimation/digital printing on fabric

Size:


    68 inches x 38 feet x 6 inches

Category:


Artist Statement:


    Human beings have inexplicable emotions that are full of complexity with many layers inside. My works represent the world’s duality and uncertainty, but also express my desire to be free from the fear of an unknown future, where we can only accept life as it comes. Self-images are layered in my work in different colors, but they are not important individually; they are part of a whole. Each piece is connected, layered, and flows together. In this way, I take part in a process of nurturing, which forms a basic component of our shared quest for the value of our existence. The idea of uninterrupted continuity is of major significance in my recent works. Since I grew up in an extremely conservative environment, complete with rigid sets of rules and demands, I tend to feel uncomfortable with framed or blocked space. This tendency to openness is also related to my concern with cosmo-centric philosophy, as opposed to egocentricbased ideas. When I process a work of dye sublimation, ambiguous memories, unclear thoughts, and forgotten moments are magnified and brought into the present. The procedure of magnification and assemblage of the particles from the past has been performed and visualized in the form of digital printing. Dye sublimation opened up new horizons in my creative practice. This technology not only keeps the flexibility and transparency of the material’s character, where I often find spiritual quality, unconsciousness, and unawareness, rather than just feminine appeal, but it also helps me find the emerging point with digital printing and physical hands-on control for the final piece. The physical qualities of fabrics are maintained even after multiple application of digital processing on the fabric. Fabric flows, moves, and breathes, and, as an art medium, it’s very presence in space draws in and engages the viewer to partake in the translation of the image.

Technical Information:


    I take digital photographs that make me think and move my thoughts from the present to the past. I transfer the photos to my computer, where I explore, express, and transform the images through digital manipulation. After I complete the images and magnify them through the Postershop Rip program, the images are printed on special coated paper and are ready for heat transfer onto fabric. When enough heat is provided, the surface opens up the pores of the polymer, and the vaporized ink is absorbed into the medium. When the temperature cools, the pore is closed and becomes a part of the polymer. This process is called dye sublimation. Dye sublimation is similar to traditional lithography, in terms of image capturing. Since the image has to go through many steps, unlike inkjet printing, dye sublimation has not only much more flexibility to change or modify the images in process, but also unknown promises offered by experimental heat transfer. Wonderful textures are intentionally and
    unintentionally created during heat transfer of the images.