About the Artist
Lawrence, Kansas
Yoonmi Nam is an artist born in Seoul, South Korea, and has studied in Korea, Canada, the United States, and Japan. Yoonmi is interested in the observation and depiction of everyday objects and occurrences, especially when they subtly suggest contradictions—a perception of time that feels both temporary and lasting and a sense of place that feels both familiar and foreign. Growing up as an only child with working parents, she often engaged in quiet observations of things around her. Experiences of living in disparate cultures with different people and their histories allowed her to notice what often is unobserved in one’s own familiar spaces. She works in traditional printmaking processes such as mokuhanga (Japanese-style water-based woodblock printing) and lithography to make imagery as well as explore other materials such as clay, glass, and paper to make three-dimensional still lifes.
Website: YoonmiNam.com
Social Media: @Yoonmi_Nam
Artist Statement
Both bandboxes were designed specifically to hold hats that we use for special occasions. A party hat and a stack of origami folded paper hats. So, I’ve also included these two kinds of hats that the bandboxes hold as part of my works. These hats are temporary and disposable. In my work, I am always drawn to objects that suggest a sense of time that seems both fleeting and eternal, so I wanted to make hatboxes for the hats that also speak to that nature. I also designed the pattern on the lithograph that I printed to cover the bandboxes. The flower images and the texts that make the patterns are taken from various plastic bags with flower images on them.