Yong Won Song (born 1974, Busan, South Korea) is a Seoul-based artist known for using wire, steel, thread and glue to create hollow but complex animal, human and (sometimes inanimate) figures. The overlapping layers made up of excessive spinning and tangling give off a ghostly effect, rendering familiar things strange. The intricate structures simultaneously convey fragility and strength.

Yong writes on his creativity: “A dream is not achieved without stimulation or information. An artistic activity, too, is not achieved without a conscious or an unconscious stimulation from everyday life. Receiving a stimulation is the same as receiving some inspiration. Just like a dream that gives us some symbolization. My work attempts to present ‘a world of dream’ as a combination of unconsciousness and consciousness, appearing like a writer’s mental state.”

Yong is an admirer of British sculptor Antony Gormley (born 1950), whose work, he feels, captures both Oriental and Occidental perspectives. “In an interview,” Yong points out, “Gormley said – ‘Modern art in the West is hungry for spirituality. Art and Civilisation excessively developed by rationality and logic lost something important. Spirituality and the internal experience will be the significant content of the new era of art. As an answer to it, I’ve found Oriental meditation.’ This is why I am inspired by Antony Gormley and his work.”

Yong Won Song obtained a BFA (2004) and an MFA (2016) from Hong-Ik University in Seoul. He has had two solo shows and participated in several group exhibitions and art fairs within South Korea and abroad in Japan, Taipei and Milan. He is currently attending the Samtan Art Mine Residency in Jeongseon.

Links: Blog (yongwon–song.blogspot.kr) | Saatchi Art (www.saatchiart.com/songyongwon) | Facebook (www.facebook.com/songyongwon74)

Email: songartist.hongik@gmail.com  

Images used with permission.