Exhibition Information
Artist: Yeri Hwang
Exhibition: Within Us
Media: Illustration, Kinetic Sculpture, Electricity, plastic, glass, wood.
Gallery: Max L. Gatov Gallery East
Instagram: Yeri’s Instagram
About the Artist
When I met Yeri today, I quickly noticed she is very soft spoken. Yeri Hwang is currently an undergrad in her last year of getting her degree in the CSULB School of Arts Studio Art Department. Today I was able to witness her Non degree show, “Within Us” which is focused on interactive art. Yeri explained that she believes interactive art is the most important and most distinctive art because it caters to everyone. She firmly believes that you shouldn’t need to have a background in art to be an artists and start making art. She stated art is for everyone and everyone should continue in their journey. After asking her about her inspiration, she replied that in came mostly from her past experiences. She particularly enjoys writing stories and playing video games so they also factor into her art.
Formal Analysis
Within Us is an art experience. It is a new world that you enter when you step into the gallery room. Yeri’s exhibit is interactive and kinetic art. All of her pieces are interactive, meaning the viewer can press a button or turn a dial and the art itself will change and transform. She using many components including light, wood, and glass to create her art pieces then uses electricity to allow the viewer to change the art in one way or the next.
Content Analysis
Within Us is a narrative of a different world created by Yuri. In this narrative, you are able to walk into her world, view her past experiences, and resonate with similar confrontations that have occurred to you. Yuri is trying to show common motifs that are seen throughout peoples lives in her art pieces. She is showing us into this world of wonder, which puts you as the ruler. Her art pieces are interactive and can be controlled by you thus they give the illusion of control, of you being the main protagonist. She is confronting her past experiences; her loses and victories, and showing them to us so we can resonate. Its as if she’s saying we all have a story to tell, and here is mine.
Synthesis / My Experience
I feel like her gallery means to show that you are not alone in this world. Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone has a story that they are currently writing out. We are not alone in these stories and we are not all unique. Like everyone else, we share these stories with people in our lives. We resonate with other peoples stories. We are all in this journey of life together, through the victories and defeats. We find ourselves somewhere through the story. We develop our personality, our likes, and dislikes throughout this journey. We are shaped by our experiences and by other characters in our story. We are gods in our stories, able to do whatever we want, able to change our destiny with a decision in seconds. We are not subjected to a single choice thus we are the ultimate protagonists. This is what I witness when I see Within Us.
The Milky Way 