chashama presents: “Budding Grove” by Yeon Ji Yoo Park

Donnell Library Space Windows, 20 West 53rd St, Across from the MoMa. January 24th – February 22nd, 2011 Viewable from street 24 hours a day.

Budding Grove, is a snapshot of growth, decay and resonance. It is about a million living things and a million dead things found within one enclosed space in the throes of constant respiration, decomposition and nourishment acquisition. It is the result of being captivated by the rich beauty of a natural landscape, as it is also an experiment in speaking aloud about unknown fears heightened by the darkness of overgrowth.

Budding Grove emerges from the reconstructed memory of the deep woods where I grew up. Like all recounted memories, the black tree grove comes from some truth, but also from the perceptions of those events or places that are left in me. In it, without physical noise or movement, I am trying to recreate the potential havoc of life creeping through absolute stillness.

My work is marked by memories and their aftershocks, which in turn reshape the memories that spawned them. I am working to develop a coherent body of work bound by the delicate (yet dependable) and robust (yet fickle) bonds that make and break us at our cores.

Yeon Ji Yoo Park, having immigrated to the United States from South Korea at age four, was educated and raised in New York. After earning her B.F.A. at the Cooper Union School of Art, Yeon Ji became an arts educator.

In 2005, Yeon Ji earned her M.F.A. in New Forms at the Pratt Institute. She augmented her knowledge base by earning her M.S. in Environmental Science at the College of Staten Island in 2007 and continues her personal and artistic pursuit of growth, overgrowth, death, and life.

Yeon Ji Yoo Park currently resides in Brooklyn with husband Eric Park, an environmental engineer. She is currently a NYC public school teacher, teaches for a non-profit organization, and is a drawing adjunct for Queens College.

Artist website: yeonjiyoo.com

For more information please visit: chashama.org