Joy Baek (She/ Her)
Joy Baek is a Korean artist currently based in Glasgow.
Adopting a multidisciplinary practice, Baek explores art as a line of dialogues which record the history of our times. Addressing the socio-cultural issues in Korean society, Baek’s work embodies both public and private interpretations of those issues.
Having graduated with a Fine Art (BA) from the Chelsea College of Arts in London, Baek recently completed her master’s degree in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art.
Joy Baek’s prime form in practice is performative sculpture, which features the co-existence of dynamic and static vibes emerging through the intertwined display of sculptural and time-based elements. The time-based elements are appearing either as a performance or as the use of materials whose exterior features change responding to time, such as latex and gelatine. This method highlights Baek’s interest in visualizing the concept of being pliable and rigid at the same time, which has been emerged from her belief that the virtue of using artworks to chart our lives allows for gaps and spaces we can fill with actions, thoughts, and conversations.
Baek’s current research has evolved from the narratives of the specific target group, the elderly prostitutes in Korea (the so-called Bacchus Ladies) to the precarity of the elders with the focus on housing issues and occupational aspects. While elaborating the precarity of the elders, Baek has sought to manifest the resilience of the elders as parents by borrowing the imagery of the symbolic flower, Pulsatilla Koreana (the so-called Grandmother flower), from the Korean folklore that highlights the sacrifice and unconditional love of an elderly mother for her daughters.
Works
Immortal Things in the World of Mortal Beings, at least in the world that I see
GSA MFA Degree Show 2022
The Ode to Grandmother Flowers – the second line
2022 / Plaster, iron powder, latex, and rusted metal
Immortal Things in the World of Mortal Beings, at least in the world that I see
Video and installation
00:08:30
2022
Performers: Nanjoo Lee and Haeun Kim
Assistant: Hayden Judd
A Series of Nothing Edible, Everything Sensible: How I recognized her waiting and Here, My waiting
Nothing Edible, Everything Sensible: How I recognized her waiting_1
Stoneware ceramic, gelatine, wire, and plaster
2022
Nothing Edible, Everything Sensible: How I recognized her waiting_2
White porcelain stoneware ceramic, plaster, and expired Yakult
2022
Nothing Edible, Everything Sensible: How I recognized her waiting_3
White porcelain stoneware ceramic, plaster, and expired peanut caramels
2022
Here, My waiting_4
Stoneware ceramic, plaster, and newly refilled Choco-pie (for visitors)
2022
A series of Nothing Edible, Everything sensible: how I recognized her waiting and Here, My waiting was derived from my memory of visiting elders’ houses in which the elders live alone. The memory goes back to about 12 years ago.
The centre of my memory was this woman whose name can’t be recalled; yet, I still vividly remember how this elderly woman kept food supplements from the volunteering organization in which I was included until my next visit with other students and offered that to us.
“Several times, I noticed some of the food passed expiration dates. I was too young and immature to think about her hospitality or waiting embodied in the food she offered us. I remember how I threw them away when I left her house.”
Reinvigorating my emotions and memory of that moment, I installed this series of ceramic pieces with expired food (Yakult and peanut caramels, the food that she gave me) inside to demonstrate the hospitality from the elderly woman, which I would illustrate as the poignant warmth.
Regarding my work, Here, My waiting, I am offering viewers one of the foods given to me by the elderly lady in past: Choco-pie.
Sprouting, Sprouting, Sprouting and Like A Pulsatilla Koreana
Sprouting, Sprouting, Sprouting
Colour pencil, charcoal and marker on Joy’s childhood sketchbook
36.2 (W)x 25.7(H) cm
2021
Like A Pulsatilla Koreana
Colour pencil, charcoal and marker on Joy’s childhood sketchbook
36.2 (W)x 25.7(H) cm
2021
Nothing Tangible, Everything Sensible: Pulsatilla Koreana that lives in a hive
2022 / Gelatine, latex, metal bar, acrylic corrugated sheet, acrylic, wig, wire, and Jihye’s hairs
Nothing Tangible, but, Everything Sensible: Grandmother Flowers that live in a hive began with Joy’s memory of this elderly woman who lived alone and greeted her with other volunteers on their regular visit to her house. While elaborating the precarity of the elderly woman in Joy’s memory with the focus on her living environments, Joy has sought to manifest the resilience of the elders as parents by borrowing the imagery of the symbolic flower, Pulsatilla Koreana (the so-called Grandmother flower), from the Korean folklore that highlights the sacrifice and unconditional love of an elderly mother for her daughters.