Youngsheen A. Jhe

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.