Yeonhee Cheong

press release: She Presents

Bridge Work: Madison 2018-2019 artist Yeonhee Cheong displays portraits of women in different media in her exhibition She Presents at Arts + Literature Laboratory from January 10 through February 16, 2019. An artist reception will coincide with ALL's annual celebration on Saturday, January 26, 2019, 6-9pm.

Exhibition Statement: Any presented appearance of a person is a representation. It is a political arena between an individual and society, and its dynamics are revealed in the visual language of physiognomy. What is done or undone in one’s appearance expresses one’s own and society’s desire and power to position the person. Today, people can control their bodily presentations easier than ever using clothing, makeup, plastic surgery, voice and movement training, and even retouching of digital media. Thus, our presented appearance has become truly a medium, that is, “any extension of ourselves” according to Marshall McLuhan.

From early ages, women are taught to pay careful attention to their clothing. They learn to manipulate their appearance to navigate between conformity and defiance in order to take a place in society, although the outcome might reflect internalization of the social norms they unconsciously surrender to. Therefore, reading one’s appearance is an interesting and complicated work. It requires a deep understanding of the visual context of the wearer/presenter in her society, not at all what we often believe we can do by a quick glance. On the other hand, the discrepancy between meanings in the presenter’s context and those in the reader’s own might result in unintended but revealing self-reflection and adjustment. This signification of “woman” is the focus of my research through the portraiture of women in various media included in this exhibition.

In the “Caption” letterpress series and the “Letter P” video work, you are invited to go through the game of reading each woman’s appearance. The watercolor and pastel self-portraits are the start of a new series in which I explore how clothing and decoration work as an extension/medium of a self beyond one’s enclosed physicality. As a professional’s wife and expatriate who has worked to build a community and a career while moving around, I use the vocabulary of the arranged flowers without root and the native prairie plants to describe my experiences and thoughts.

This exhibition is supported in part by Dane Arts with additional funds from the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times, the W. Jerome Frautschi Foundation, and the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation.