Exhibition walkthrough
Rachel Youn
[…] it is not about the objects, but what we—the viewers—can learn about ourselves from experiencing their manic, hopefully cathartic, unleashing of energy in the room. In both art and philosophy, this tends to be the case. In the latter especially, ordinary knickknacks, tools or home appliances are routinely called upon to serve as props in some thought experiment in which humans are the real protagonists. […] Text by Kristian Vistrup Madsen
With a practice that finds its origins in the funny and imaginative nature of illustration and cartoons, American artist Rachel Youn (*1994 Abington, PA) has developed a language made of kinetic installations that move like creatures with a life of their own. Their works arise from the recovery of objects that, in a sense, have missed their purpose: the artist sources materials with a history of aspiration and failure through secondhand shopping. Venturing into the suburbs, Youn rescues electric massagers, fastening artificial plants to the machines to create kinetic sculptures that are clumsy, erotic, and absurd. Their work identifies with the replica that earnestly desires to be real, and the failed object that simulates care and intimacy.