Fakewhale in dialogue with Julie Insun Youn
Julie Insun Youn worked in traditional painting for over a decade and, since 2015, has shifted to “post-painting” and multidisciplinary digital experiments. Primarily based on stripes, her geometric graphics are abstract and evoke a transient mood. Through repetition, rearrangement, and overwriting, they create a shuffle motion that disrupts everyday life and fosters a meditative awareness. In an era where everything is reduced to and consumed by digital imagery, Youn paradoxically seeks to reveal a distinct “beauty.” Concealing a nostalgia for the analog, her work aims to visualize the “light of consciousness” that dwells in the “here and now.” Fakewhale has engaged in a dialogue with some questions about her work!
1. You’ve mentioned a state of “selflessness” (無我) achieved through the disruption of everyday senses. What inspired you to explore this concept of self-annihilation, and how is it represented in your works?
First of all, I actually don’t pursue the disruption of the senses. Rather, I aim for the moment when the self is forgotten at the peak of heightened senses. Also, I haven’t explored self-annihilation directly. I believe that art fundamentally suspends everyday life and self-consciousness, leading us to a sense of sublimity and beauty. The concept of “selflessness” emerges from this idea. Art can perhaps instantly lead us to the peak of the “meditative state’” that many meditators and practitioners strive for. This astonishing power of art is what inspired me to title it “Instant Trance.”
2. The description of *Instant Trance* speaks of a “psychedelic world of images and sounds that repeat, rearrange, and overwrite.” How did you develop the visual aspect of this psychedelic world, and what role does randomness play in your creative process?
The main motifs in my work are stripe patterns and geometric shapes. I repeatedly overlap and rearrange these layers, allowing my intuition to guide the process. I realized that the meaning of my work has always been retrospective. The abstract and geometric layer-play created by intuition immediately leads to the “meditative experience” I have long sought, where the self ceases and thoughts disappear. Even the visuality seems to symbolize the experience of “egolessness” emerging from countless layers of thoughts and emotions. I believe that the “randomness” actively involved in my process serves as a gateway to invoking the power and spirituality of art that is greater than myself.
3. “Instant Trance” invites visitors to “queue up in anticipation of the sudden, lightning-like moment of trance.” How would you describe the ideal moment of trance you hope to evoke in visitors, and how do you prepare for it through the exhibition setup?
The presence of the artwork itself serves as an entrance to an ideal state of “trance.” In the exhibition space, we are subtly guided by the artwork into a realm beyond our immediate perception. This invitation leads us from our ego-centered routines and the weight of complex thoughts to a world of pathos. The moment we accept this invitation, we experience “egolessness and trance,” where everyday life and language cease, without any meditational practice or effort. I have always been amazed by the spiritual power of art and aspired to live as a mediator of that power. The “Instant Trance” aims to manifest a distinct yet unmistakable beauty through a layer-play of nonrepresentational and abstract forms. When one perceives and encounters this beauty, the experience of “trance” will naturally follow.
4. In “Low Field Trip (2024)”, you describe a journey of consciousness descending into the depths of the inner world. Can you elaborate on how this “inner journey” relates to the broader theme of the “here and now” that you explore in your works?
Low Field Trip (2024) is a solo exhibition I held earlier this year at Sahngup Gallery in Seoul. The “inner journey” represents an exploration into the unknown, lower realms of the unconscious. Meditation pulls us inward from the external world full of noise into a state of peace and silence, allowing us to reconnect with the authentic self while breathing in the “here and now.” This exhibition is an invitation to the meditative effects of art and to a spiritual moment.
5. Your art seems to reflect a certain nostalgia for the analog, despite being deeply rooted in the digital. How do you manage this tension between the desire to preserve the analog and the adoption of the digital in your works?
In fact, I majored in painting in college and worked with traditional painting for over a decade before naturally transitioning to digital media. Although my work is clearly rooted in contemporary digital aesthetics, my painterly instincts guide my graphics to achieve a perfect formal quality within a single screen. I still do not use AI technology; every detail of the graphics and clips in my video work is manually completed and arranged. Therefore, my work retains a sense of analog nostalgia and the residual essence of painting. There is no real tension; it can be understood as digital work from a painter’s perspective.
6. Looking ahead, what are your next projects, and what themes or technologies do you intend to focus on to continue exploring the boundary between digital and analog, consciousness and the unconscious?
I don’t have specific plans yet, but I have a group exhibition with two other artists coming up in October at PS CENTER in Seoul. I actually don’t approach such boundaries in a rational manner; rather, my transition from being a painter to working in digital media has been a natural evolution, driven by a search for “salvation” from the ego-centered world and emotional suffering. I hope to present my work in cities around the world in the near future, offering the possibility and experience of “salvation.”
fakewhale
Founded in 2021, Fakewhale advocates the digital art market's evolution. Viewing NFT technology as a container for art, and leveraging the expansive scope of digital culture, Fakewhale strives to shape a new ecosystem in which art and technology become the starting point, rather than the final destination.
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