Jason S. Yi: Yellow Mountain and Other Places
Dean Jensen Gallery
759 N. Water Street. 414-278-7100
www.deanjensengallery.com
October 19 – December 1, 2007
Review by Deb Brehmer
Jason Yi spent a month in China last summer where he
continued to connect the dots between the Asian and American
sides of himself. An exhibition of his new work, based on his
overseas residency, is on view at Dean Jensen Gallery,
Milwaukee, through December 1.
The show includes large-scale photographs of the Yellow
Mountains in China, a few wall sculptures that suggest clouds
or mountains and large-scale pencil drawings of trees.
Entering the space of the gallery, one immediately feels Yi’s
light touch. The images, drawings and sculptures hover gently
and quietly in the space and form a unified presence. We are
quickly transported into an atmosphere where memory, longing
for meaning and our human awkwardness seem to meet.
The Yellow Mountains have mythic dimensions. To be Chinese,
says Yi, an art professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and
Design, one must at some point, visit the mountains. Yi’s father
is a landscape painter of Korean ancestry and he has painted
the mountains. It’s a right of passage for artists, a professional
calling. Yi made his pilgrimage up the mountain, knowing full
well it would be inundated with busloads of tourists. He knew
ahead of time that his focus would be this integration of man
and the mountains. As tour group after tour group scampered
to the prime overlooks for photographs, Yi lingered in one
place, with his camera posed. He ended up photographing the
tourists as they settled against the vista for their own
photographs.
What results are not the images that one would expect. Instead
of casting a critical eye on the hungry tourists who seek out the
experience of the Yellow Mountains, but then seem only able to
consume it in the rushed means of a snapshot, Yi gives us a
sensitive and broader investigation. All context is removed
except the humans posed at corners of the images and the
backdrop of the often mist covered mountains. All is frozen in
these compositions. The moment lingers where the
photographer, Jason Yi, and the unknowing tourist and the
timeless essence of the mountains coalesce. Of course, we, as
the viewer, become part of the composition as well. We extend
the frozen moment into present time and place and activate the
theme of perception as we stop time with our own gaze at the
work of art. These are really beautiful images that speak of our
difficult and often futile attempts to connect with deep,
meaningful or soulful concepts like nature, beauty, history,
mythology and, yes, art. As humans, we try. We know where to
go and our instincts keep us hungry for meaningful
experiences, but our contemporary lives render us nearly
impotent in our skills of connection. Yi’s images are full of both
the beauty and awkwardness of the attempt to connect, to see,
to perceive and absorb meaning.
The drawings are a completely different type of investigation.
They are delicate graphite patterns of tree branches, overlaid
with various circle shapes. Maybe they speak of the same
things as the photographs: the integration of two disparate
forms, nature and geometry in this sense. The drawings are
gentle and beautiful, offering another fleeting sense of an
encounter.
Yi’s work is interesting because his range is so broad. One
never knows what he’s going to produce for any particular
show. Video, photography, drawing, sculpture are all in his
arsenal and with each medium he brings his ideas to a quite
remarkable state of wholeness.
Dean Jensen Gallery
759 N. Water Street. 414-278-7100
www.deanjensengallery.com
October 19 – December 1, 2007
Review by Deb Brehmer
Jason Yi spent a month in China last summer where he
continued to connect the dots between the Asian and American
sides of himself. An exhibition of his new work, based on his
overseas residency, is on view at Dean Jensen Gallery,
Milwaukee, through December 1.
The show includes large-scale photographs of the Yellow
Mountains in China, a few wall sculptures that suggest clouds
or mountains and large-scale pencil drawings of trees.
Entering the space of the gallery, one immediately feels Yi’s
light touch. The images, drawings and sculptures hover gently
and quietly in the space and form a unified presence. We are
quickly transported into an atmosphere where memory, longing
for meaning and our human awkwardness seem to meet.
The Yellow Mountains have mythic dimensions. To be Chinese,
says Yi, an art professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and
Design, one must at some point, visit the mountains. Yi’s father
is a landscape painter of Korean ancestry and he has painted
the mountains. It’s a right of passage for artists, a professional
calling. Yi made his pilgrimage up the mountain, knowing full
well it would be inundated with busloads of tourists. He knew
ahead of time that his focus would be this integration of man
and the mountains. As tour group after tour group scampered
to the prime overlooks for photographs, Yi lingered in one
place, with his camera posed. He ended up photographing the
tourists as they settled against the vista for their own
photographs.
What results are not the images that one would expect. Instead
of casting a critical eye on the hungry tourists who seek out the
experience of the Yellow Mountains, but then seem only able to
consume it in the rushed means of a snapshot, Yi gives us a
sensitive and broader investigation. All context is removed
except the humans posed at corners of the images and the
backdrop of the often mist covered mountains. All is frozen in
these compositions. The moment lingers where the
photographer, Jason Yi, and the unknowing tourist and the
timeless essence of the mountains coalesce. Of course, we, as
the viewer, become part of the composition as well. We extend
the frozen moment into present time and place and activate the
theme of perception as we stop time with our own gaze at the
work of art. These are really beautiful images that speak of our
difficult and often futile attempts to connect with deep,
meaningful or soulful concepts like nature, beauty, history,
mythology and, yes, art. As humans, we try. We know where to
go and our instincts keep us hungry for meaningful
experiences, but our contemporary lives render us nearly
impotent in our skills of connection. Yi’s images are full of both
the beauty and awkwardness of the attempt to connect, to see,
to perceive and absorb meaning.
The drawings are a completely different type of investigation.
They are delicate graphite patterns of tree branches, overlaid
with various circle shapes. Maybe they speak of the same
things as the photographs: the integration of two disparate
forms, nature and geometry in this sense. The drawings are
gentle and beautiful, offering another fleeting sense of an
encounter.
Yi’s work is interesting because his range is so broad. One
never knows what he’s going to produce for any particular
show. Video, photography, drawing, sculpture are all in his
arsenal and with each medium he brings his ideas to a quite
remarkable state of wholeness.
Full Moon Edition No. 1 10.26.07
| Copyright 2007 Art History Chicks LLC |
| Jason S. Yi, #2 from Yellow Mountain Series No. 1, 2007. Lightjetprint, 24 x 36 in. Edition of 10. Photograph: www.deanjensengallery.com |
| Jason S. Yi, #1 from Yellow Mountain Series No. 1, 2007. Lightjetprint, 24 x 36 in. Edition of 10. Photograph: www.deanjensengallery.com |
| Jason S. Yi, #3 from Yellow Mountain Series No. 1, 2007. Lightjetprint, 24 x 36 in. Edition of 10. Photograph: www.deanjensengallery.com |
| Jason S. Yi, #2 from Yellow Mountain Series No. 2, 2007. Lightjetprint, 24 x 36 in. Edition of 10. Photograph: www.deanjensengallery.com |
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This month in STI:
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Exhibition at the
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Wifredo Lam in North
America at the
Haggerty Museum of
Art
Bronze, Fonze, and
Folly?
Jason S. Yi: Yellow
Mountain and Other
Places at Dean
Jensen Gallery
Sketches: short take
on current exhibitions;
The Nohl Fellowship
Awards
fabrics interseason,
surface: tapisserie no.
1
Cover shot
Contact us
Inside and Outside:
Marketing and the
Martín Ramírez
Exhibition at the
Milwaukee Art Museum
Wifredo Lam in North
America at the
Haggerty Museum of
Art
Bronze, Fonze, and
Folly?
Jason S. Yi: Yellow
Mountain and Other
Places at Dean
Jensen Gallery
Sketches: short take
on current exhibitions;
The Nohl Fellowship
Awards
fabrics interseason,
surface: tapisserie no.
1
Cover shot
Contact us
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