MARCH: You once wrote that your bad eyesight was the basis for a “suspicious perception of the world.” What is this suspicion and how does it inform your work?

Heeseop Yoon: It is more like a suspicious view of the world that’s formed by the confusion between seeing, believing, and knowing. My work starts with the questions “Why do we see? What are we looking at? Is that real? What is real?” The obsessive lines in my work are the visual result of my effort to answer these questions.

MARCH: Ours is supposedly a culture where images dominate over objects. Your commitment to looking at actual objects challenges this myth, as well as visual art’s complicity in propagating it. What are our obligations towards seeing today?

Heeseop Yoon: The act of seeing involves both objective and subjective activities, but we no longer look at objects anymore because we have completed images in front of our eyes all the time. We know things even before we see them because we are trained how to look at things. We need a more selective and active gaze towards the world. The act of seeing should be more critical.

MARCH: You use everyday materials like tape and mylar to transform the more mundane act of drawing into something heroic and magical. How does your particular adaptation of drawing contribute to your practice of criticality?

Heeseop Yoon: Recognizable objects are presented in a way that you have to make an effort to recognize them. I draw freehand without erasing. As I correct “mistakes” the work results in double or multiple lines, which reflect how my perception has changed over time and makes me question my initial perception. Paradoxically, in my work greater concentration and more lines make the object drawn less clear. The more I see, the less I believe in the accuracy or reality of the images I draw.

Born in 1976 in Seoul, Korea, Heeseop Yoon holds an MFA from the City College of New York, and a BFA from Chung-Ang University in Seoul. She has participated in residencies including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, and the Artists Alliance Inc. (AAI).