Heeseop Yoon

Heeseop Yoon who is a part of our current exhibit Crossing the Line was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. She is known for her larger than life line drawing installations. Yoon’s concentrated freehand drawings record cluttered spaces, and comment most directly on the (in)accuracy of perception.

Yoon writes, "My work deals with memory and perception within cluttered spaces. I begin by photographing interiors such as basements, workshops, and storage spaces, places where everything is jumbled and time becomes ambiguous without the presence of people. From these photographs I construct a view and then I draw freehand without erasing. As I correct "mistakes" the work results in double or multiple lines, which reflect how my perception has changed over time and makes me question my initial perception. Paradoxically, greater concentration and more lines make the drawn objects less clear. The more I see, the less I believe in the accuracy or reality of the images I draw."

Simple, small items like knickknacks or keys, those things which clutter our daily lives are here depicted on a grandiose scale with care and precision. On one level perhaps Yoon is making the statement that our collection of objects and material goods can be helpful to our lives or just as chaotic and overwhelming as her incredible wall sized representations.

Heeseop Yoon – Crossing the Line from Mixed Greens on Vimeo.

--Mixed Greens intern, Callie Herod

TAGS: crossingtheline

Visit from Cooper Union

Larry Ossei-Mensah gives a tour of Crossing the Line for Cooper Union students. #crossingtheline #mgsummershow

TAGS: crossingtheline / exhibition

Oasa DuVerney

Since Oasa DuVerney received her MFA from Hunter College in 2011 her work has primarily consisted of video performance as well as graphite drawings on paper. Her piece, Fidel 638 Times is currently installed in our group show: Crossing the Line, Contemporary Drawing and Artistic Processes. The piece is a series of 638 cropped portraits, each graphite on paper, and all done from a single photograph of Castro. Oasa found this image from an article about the many unsuccessful assassination attempts the US made against Castro.
Throughout her work, Oasa means to portray societies collective aggression often through the display of consumerist culture. With this piece she was interested in the large number of failed assassination attempts paired with the obsessive amount of drawings.


TAGS: crossingtheline

Firelei Báez

Firelei Báez is included in our summer exhibit Crossing the Line. She is of Haitian-Dominican descent, and her artwork involves large-scale, intricate works on paper indebted to a convergence of interests in anthropology, science fiction, black female subjectivity, and “women's work.” Her art explores the humor and fantasy involved in self-making within diasporic societies.

Her work questions the formation of cultural identities and fleshes out tangled concepts about race. Her characters which she often re-works and inserts as silhouettes onto the pages of books, lack skin tones. Instead, the figures are created from flowers, flowing vines, and ornate decorations. They firmly reject definition in terms of skin color or physical traits.

She writes, "As more people become multiracial, skin tone is no longer a sufficient signifier. Growing media presence and more commonplace interactions via technology in our daily lives reduce each individual to a small part of a larger demographic. I use symbolically loaded scenarios to metaphorically illustrate the multiplicities and hypocrisies that make up the current discussion about race and class within popular culture".

Instead of specific bodies, faces, or characteristics, Báez prefers depicting people as interweaving, multiple patterns that are as unique and dynamic as humans themselves.

Watch the video here:

Firelei Báez – Crossing the Line from Mixed Greens on Vimeo.

--Mixed Greens intern, Callie Herod

TAGS: crossingtheline

Ruby & Ada

Be sure to check out Ruby Amanze's alter ego, Ada the Alien when you visit our current exhibition Crossing the Line: Contemporary Drawing and Artistic Process. Amanze is a Brooklyn-based artist of Nigerian birth and British upbringing who has found empowerment in the authenticity of the hybrid.

She writes, "For expatriates, straddling multiple cultural identities often presents a challenge...To safely navigate this sensory collision of familiar yet strange, spaces, memories, and cultures, I have invented an alter ego named Ada the Alien. These drawings are a reflection of her layered experiences; living somewhere between reality and fantasy".

Her mixed media drawings represent the fractured experiences of those who have encountered the consequences of displacement. But Amanze embraces this discomfort and uses it within her work. She projects herself into each piece, using her fantastical drawings to explore her own identity. At their core, Amanze creates art about change whether it be the change that accompanies moving, the change of self as a result of leaving one place behind, or the small changes that shape day to day existence.

Watch her video here:

Ruby Amanze – Crossing the Line from Mixed Greens on Vimeo.

--Mixed Greens intern, Callie Herod

#crossingtheline
#mgsummershow

TAGS: crossingtheline / exhibition