Youngsheen A. Jhe

2024  "We All Love"

We areall love. Although each person's life seems to be following an individualtrajectory, in reality they are all part of one big story. We are all connectedby an invisible thread, not only those I know, but even those I am not directlyconnected to. At the center of that connection is the essence of love. No oneis alone.

Just asthe Creator created this world with love, we also live our lives with love andare connected to each other through this love. I believe that the process ofdiscovering and releasing this love that is inherent within me is the life offinding myself.

BecauseI am love and you are love too.

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2023 "Me in You"

I see me in you.We are all intertwined and connected.While observing people passing by on the street I can derive certain aspects within myself. Theirjoys and sorrows, their wanderings, hopes and even their frustrations are allpart of my life. Even Mannequins in shop windows on the street reflect thelives of modern people and the fashion model’s walking resembled us living inthe Covid era.

Furthermore, experiences, thoughts, and emotions are also connected between us. Because ofthis accumulated bond, barriers everywhere are broken down, and as wesympathize with others, we can understand and empathize with ourselves, enabling us to share mercy, kindness and understanding.

Because I am in you and you are in me.

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2021 "Nonetheles"

What kind of world do we live in? As the COVID19 pandemic pushes us to a disconnected life, every one of us is seemingly stuck in our own world although humans are social animals. We are forced to walk this path alone and with our faces covered. An invisible glass film (and sometimes visible) blocks us from another. Solitude and loneliness were forced upon our lives and all we can do is to walk this lonely road without a companion. 

My starting desire was to depict the reality of human beings through the inanimate mannequins, helplessly stuck in their own solitary world.

From this series, I started to describe living fashion models instead of mannequins. They walk away from other models with expressionless and inanimate faces, but nonetheless their steps are always confident and they walk on a bright path full of light, not bleak hopelessness. It seems to be the image of us living in a pandemic. We have to walk with social distancing, but there is always a bright light for us."

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2018 "Dancing Series"

With ‘You Dancing’ Series, I portray the invisible internal world of human beings, beyond visible external world. I tried to convey to the viewer that they can find their soul dancing with God as they pass over each obstacles, even passing over obstacles appear as if they live and struggle on their own. I would like to say, “I realized suffering was joy in disguise, and loneliness was fullness yet to experience. Knowing and seeing so, you live with the fullness of your soul, and you become always glad and thankful”. I tried to depict this relationship as a dance by describing on the visible human body with the presence of light.

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2011 "Starting the Mannequin Series"

All of the idea in my paintings is from my experience as a foreigner in the States, in Europe, and even in Korea. I had a great chance to stay in Italy without knowing any Italian for five weeks in 2010. Although I am a foreigner to both Italy and America, I was stricken by the difference between the two lands. I did not know any Italian, and they did not know any Korean or English. The people whom I faced became distant strangers. Because I could not communicate with them, I could only see them as objects. Their shapes became ever more clear as I began to feel increasingly distant from them.

Upon reflection of my own life back in America, I realized that my own existence was like that of a mannequin. I stood by myself, staring out into the world. Perhaps, my existence resembled the person staring into lines and lines of mannequins as well. Though I am alive and animate, the people that I saw seemed inanimate, stuck in their sole worlds. It felt as if they did not really see me, but rather gazed upon my direction, just like the mannequins stuck within glass cubes.

I tried to describe the reality of humans in the modern society through fictitious lives of mannequins found commonly on show windows. I depicted the human beings through the inanimate mannequins, helplessly stuck in their own solitary world. I wanted to show the reality that humans face, that is no different from the reality that the lifeless shapes, the mannequins, face. Moreover, people of this modern society have a tendency to be aloof with one another. We have become either too indifferent or superficial to see beyond appearances of others; the depth of our observation only extends as far as the nice clothes, shoes, or bags of an individual. All of us are seemingly stuck in each of our own world. We incase ourselves within an invisible glass cube and gradually begin to resemble the inanimate mannequins.

In fact, only things that seemingly await us in dark streets are these mannequins displayed in show windows. They welcome people walking alone. Even if these people walk in their own confinements, these mannequins greet them. Mannequins seem to be becoming like the human beings. This irony is manifested in the world that we live in. Fact is concealed within fiction and fiction is but a shadow of fact. The mannequins depicted in my paintings are my own visage, as well as yours. I live in the same physical world as you, and yet the world I live in differs significantly from that of yours. I am faced with solitude, just as you might be. Solitude is different from loneliness. Through solitude, we are able to face our own inner souls and its needs. Are we experiencing solitude or are we simply alone? These are the important questions that define whether we belong in the "factual" world or in the "fictional" world.