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BEYOND Exhibition: Cherishing the Blinking
20241217-20250817

The show is running until 2025/08/17 at Buk-Seoul Museum of Art

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Buk-Seoul Museum of Art
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Weekdays(TUE–FRI) 10AM–8PM
SAT · SUN · Public Holidays Summer, 10AM~7PM
Winter, 10AM~6PM
《Seoul Culture Night》 Every Month First, Third Friday
10AM–9PM
Opening Hours The last admission is 1 hour prior to closing time
Closed Days 01.01 , Every Monday
Regular closing days

Exhibition Location

Buk-Seoul Museum of Art Outdoor

Exhibition Period

2024.12.17~2025.08.17

Admission

Free

Exhibition Area

sculpture, installation, book, audience participation performance

Exhibition Genre

Participating Artists

Woonhae Yea

Number of Artworks

Inquiries for Exhibition

Jin Lee 02-2124-5269

Inquiries for Visit

Information Desk 02-2124-5248,5249

Information on the Exhibition

You, who came from a far-off land, glint gently in my palm.
Blink, blink. Flicker, flicker.
Your faint energy, as if it might vanish at any moment.
Yet the soft strokes of solace

become your strength to find your footing.

Now I offer my half to another, standing side by side.
Passing warmth through our clasped fingertips,
placed back in an endless orbit after a full circling.
A warm light streams in―lifting my gaze, I see today’s sky.
Only then do I glimpse what was hidden.
I lift my weary heart,
searching once more for the sparkling “now.”

BEYOND Exhibition 2024 titled Cherishing the Blinking sheds light on all that glitters around us and the things that shimmer but are destined to fade. The glimmers that seem distant to us―both psychologically and physically―can at times represent a sense of care and compassion for non-human beings that stand in “opposition” to humanity. They can also symbolize the act of forming a “pair,” meeting palm to palm, or passing warmth from one hand to another. The exhibition title, banjjak (blinking) in Korean, combines the dual meanings of ban (opposition) and jjak (pair), encapsulating the exhibition’s exploration of fleeting glimmers in the present and their long journey to the palm, even though their origin, lifespan, or birthplace are unknown. Just as the twinkle lights of a lighthouse sending rhythmic flashes and transmitting messages through signals of light, those who share the signal create a language of communication.

Woonhae Yea collects things―discarded aluminium cans and scrap metal often found in urban environments―that have lost their (original) human-imposed purpose and transforms them into art. Through her gaze, these objects continue to communicate with their own signals. Yea ceaselessly questions and explores the existence of voiced “objects” being reduced to “things,” and her gentle touch inspires a reconnection with our surroundings, infusing a sense of care that draws our attention back to the world around us. All “the blinking” that we encounter unexpectedly, intertwined with the existence cherished by the artist who has loved these glimmers, have found their way to the art museum. We invite visitors to take a close look at the artworks, which will share their moments within the space and encourage curiosity.

As poet Yoon Dong-ju wrote, “With my heart singing to the stars, I shall love all things that are dying. And I must walk the road that has been given to me,” the 11 artworks on display in the exhibition are to be viewed with a tender and loving gaze. We hope these moments of cherishing will extend beyond the exhibition, sparking glimpses of inspiration in our daily lives. The exhibition tells stories that unfold over time―as winter turns to spring, and spring to summer―with the hope that our attitude toward them will inspire new actions.

Since 2017, Buk-Seoul Museum of Art’s annual BEYOND Project has redefined the art experience, presenting artworks both inside and beyond the museum. By transforming unconventional spaces, it creates vibrant platforms for immersive sensory encounters and dynamic engagement. The exhibition of this year also extends a warm welcome to all visitors, aspiring to become a foundation for coexistence with all beings around us and a bridge that connects and enriches the spaces between them.

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SECRET LOVE Woonhae Yea Secret Love is an essay by Woonhae Yea, documenting her daily journeys through London and Seoul from 2019 to 2024. Photos of crushed cans collected from the streets and her fascination with their sparkling allure are distilled into the text, enriching the narrative. The title, inspired by a popular 1990s song, serves as a metaphor for the artist's desire to share this "love" with others. Over five years, her friends noticed her enduring devotion and started delivering shimmering cans to her from places like the United States, India, Canada, Kazakhstan, and Spain. This "love" inspired Yea to seek out the next gleaming object. To this day, her gaze roams city streets with affection, searching for the glistening finds. In her palm, those that traveled from afar are infused with warmth and inspiration.

Lock Diary Woonhae Yea Yea has spent over five years collecting flattened, discarded aluminium cans from roads, starting in 2019 during her time in London and continuing in her current home in Korea. This quiet, long-held affection for the cans has inspired her friends to collect them from around the globe and bring them to her. Each can, therefore, carries unique stories and moments, transcending national boundaries. Displayed larger than life, the cans invite visitors to observe their dents and scratches―marks of countless journeys, each with its own tale. Preserved and illuminated, they now reside within the locked diary, waiting to be approached with care as if one were glimpsing a secret journal. Through this exhibition, the artist seeks to unlock the diary and share their voices with the audience.

Forgotten Letters Woonhae Yea A set of over 20-year-old cluster mailboxes, removed from their original setting, stands in a small room within the space on the museum’s second floor. This ensemble of 20 mailboxes serves units 104 to 905 in an apartment complex and the management office. The blinking lights inside evoke the nightscape of an apartment building and starlight within a microcosm, each conveying its own narrative. Woonhae Yea views these mailboxes, touched by countless hands over decades, as vessels of warmth that hold the essence of our lives. Within them lie forgotten stories and used envelopes that she has carefully collected over time. Visitors, as they listen to the narration by singer Yozoh drifting from nearby, are invited to imagine the lives and stories carried by these mailboxes.

Shooting Star Woonhae Yea Constructed from connected can tabs, this work offers profound insight into the artist’s mindset. The collected aluminium cans are gently washed and the tabs, with the tops and bottoms removed, are installed in rows. Amid these countless connections, Yeo was reminded of the image of meteors streaking across the night sky and named her work Shooting Star, a more familiar term for this celestial phenomenon. As an infinitely expanding possibility, like a meteor that journeys without end, a shooting star embodies a future shared by all. In different corners of the world, people drink canned soda, their hands and lips leaving a lingering warmth on the tabs. As it envisions fragile beings bound in pairs and dependent on each other, the shooting star sets off again on its journey, following the glittering threads to where other lives shine and wait.

Delivery Box Series Woonhae Yea Yea first began creating this signature series of artworks in 2017. Common delivery boxes, familiar in our everyday lives, are collected by the artist and transformed into chairs using buffer materials, wooden panels, and tape. In this exhibition, set in the museum’s lounge, the artwork takes the place of conventional seating, inviting visitors to engage with the concept of “rest.” Viewers are encouraged to sit on the pieces, examining them closely as if they were actual parcels traveling from distant places to Buk-Seoul Museum of Art. Modern delivery services, designed for human convenience, rely on relentless labor to minimize delivery times and drive the excessive use of disposable packaging. Through the Delivery Box series, the artist presents a powerful symbol of unrestrained consumption and waste within capitalist society, prompting a reconsideration of the objects around us. Additionally, by repurposing items that have reached the end of their lifecycle, Yea seeks to uncover their existential value and blur the boundaries between what is and is not a commodity.

L-OVE LE-TTE-R Woonhae Yea L-OVE LE-TTE-R is a participatory, performance-based artwork that invites audiences to join the artist in her long-standing admiration for the small yet sparkling. Visitors engage by sipping warm or cold drinks from a warmer or vending machine, wiping the can tabs, and leaving their marks. The simple act of popping open a can and taking a sip leaves a trace of the individual’s touch, breathing new life into the sparkling cans as they are wrapped in warmth and care. Through these actions, visitor-created tab threads become part of the artwork, weaving new connections. With L-OVE LE-TTE-R, Yea aims to reach a wider audience, highlighting the boundless potential of even the most delicate things. Performances will take place four times during the exhibition: on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024, and in February, May, and August 2025.

Village Woonhae Yea Village is a collection of small sets of Shooting Star pieces, united to form a cluster. The warm glow that permeates the exhibition space and the shimmering connections within it draw viewers’ attention. The can tabs, once collected from roads, are reassembled here, conveying the warmth of countless human touches. Flickering bulbs invite us to lean in and listen to their quiet stories. Like the countless city lights that blink and the glow from apartment windows that create a subtle harmony, the Village within the exhibit hall spins to its own rhythm, gleaming and waning. The occasional sound of rotation reminds us that our lives, too, move in cycles. As winter gives way to spring and summer fades back to winter, so do the various communities of beings on Earth, breathing in and out, flowing together through their passage of time. * This is an evolving piece that develops through audience participation. The artist will interact with visitors during scheduled sessions at the museum.

A Thin Node Woonhae Yea A Thin Node features retractable blinds fitted into the glass doors that divide the exhibition hall on the Lounge1, with flattened aluminium cans collected from the streets attached to each slat. Whenever Yea came across one, she meticulously cleaned and preserved it as a treasured object. Over the years, these cans have been brought together, interwoven to shape their own unique stories. Yet her gaze shifted beyond the studio―to the cans she left behind as they were not flattened. Later, they were reclaimed by scrap collectors, who repurposed them for profit, reflecting the changing roles of abandoned items. By raising and lowering the blinds, Yea transforms the space into a passage that is neither fully inside nor outside. The cans settle into the gaps of the surroundings, waiting for their next movement, like a delicate network expanding and contracting to form a symbiotic structure.

Fresh Feelings Woonhae Yea Fresh Feelings features a vending machine model introduced by Samsung Electronics in 1993 and discontinued just two years later. Over three decades, it interacted with countless hands―hands that deliberated over drink choices, retrieved cans, and refilled or emptied the machine―before finally arriving at the museum through the artist's own touch. Its fate molded by these countless marks, the vending machine now stands incorporated into the installation, resuming operation while concealing its stories as if untouched by time. The return of its incandescent glow feels like breathing life back into something once dormant. Inside, ceramic pieces shaped like beverage cans, titled Crushed Feelings, are juxtaposed with traditional cans, set against the ad slogan on the bottom panel: “Crack open the freshness of a canned beverage…” Will we truly feel refreshed when we see this vending machine, as claimed? Through the phrase “fresh feelings,” Yea ironically comments on our current state, where modern capitalism compels us to constantly expend energy in the pursuit of efficiency.

Crushed Feelings Woonhae Yea Crushed Feelings is a ceramic representation of objects such as dented and pressed aluminium cans. One day, Yea discovered a beverage can discarded on the road, left to be kicked, rolled, and eventually flattened by a passing car. This encounter led her to notice the subtle stories each can carries and to reframe the emotional heaviness she experiences toward their crushed forms by naming it “feeling.” Through meticulous crafting and glazing, Yea created imaginary cans that have lost their original identities. The surfaces of these objects are etched with words from street flyers and traces of the city, including tire prints. By gently interacting with and embracing each piece, the artist honors their intrinsic value and significance.

Meteorite Woonhae Yea The installation, known by its Korean title Byulddongdol, which conveys a more familiar interpretation of a meteorite, envisions discarded asphalt debris in urban environments as meteorites fallen from space. Asphalt, derived from the fractional distillation of petroleum, is used in road construction as asphalt concrete (a mix of asphalt and aggregates like sand and gravel). Unlike cement, which maintains rigidity, it is flexible, allowing for efficient application. However, this flexibility comes at a cost―it is easily breakable, wears out quickly, and requires frequent replacement. What happens to this material when it reaches the end of its life? The artist collected crumbling, dirt-covered fragments of asphalt, cleaned them, and brought them to the museum. Once weathered under the blazing summer sun, these pieces are now transformed, embracing a new existence as objects of attention and appreciation.

Now and Here Woonhae Yea Installed in the outdoor area of Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Now and Here is a variation of the Shooting Star series, crafted from empty aluminium cans, tabs, coins, and more. Suspended from a telegraph pole in the museum's front yard, the piece reflects the weather of the day. Shimmering in sunlight and clanging together in strong winds, it produces irregular sounds and responds sensitively to rain and snow, acting as a mirror of nature's conditions. The artist suggests that while artificial intelligence can analyze data to forecast the weather, we should instead pay closer attention to our surroundings. Viewers are encouraged to read the sun, embrace the wind, and immerse themselves in nature’s transitions, savoring every solar term. This call to live fully in the present, beyond the digital realm, embodies a way of life that the artist shares with all who visit the museum.

See All (12)

SECRET LOVE Secret Love is an essay by Woonhae Yea, documenting her daily journeys through London and Seoul from 2019 to 2024. Photos of crushed cans collected from the streets and her fascination with their sparkling allure are distilled into the text, enriching the narrative. The title, inspired by a popular 1990s song, serves as a metaphor for the artist's desire to share this "love" with others. Over five years, her friends noticed her enduring devotion and started delivering shimmering cans to her from places like the United States, India, Canada, Kazakhstan, and Spain. This "love" inspired Yea to seek out the next gleaming object. To this day, her gaze roams city streets with affection, searching for the glistening finds. In her palm, those that traveled from afar are infused with warmth and inspiration.

Lock Diary Yea has spent over five years collecting flattened, discarded aluminium cans from roads, starting in 2019 during her time in London and continuing in her current home in Korea. This quiet, long-held affection for the cans has inspired her friends to collect them from around the globe and bring them to her. Each can, therefore, carries unique stories and moments, transcending national boundaries. Displayed larger than life, the cans invite visitors to observe their dents and scratches―marks of countless journeys, each with its own tale. Preserved and illuminated, they now reside within the locked diary, waiting to be approached with care as if one were glimpsing a secret journal. Through this exhibition, the artist seeks to unlock the diary and share their voices with the audience.

Forgotten Letters A set of over 20-year-old cluster mailboxes, removed from their original setting, stands in a small room within the space on the museum’s second floor. This ensemble of 20 mailboxes serves units 104 to 905 in an apartment complex and the management office. The blinking lights inside evoke the nightscape of an apartment building and starlight within a microcosm, each conveying its own narrative. Woonhae Yea views these mailboxes, touched by countless hands over decades, as vessels of warmth that hold the essence of our lives. Within them lie forgotten stories and used envelopes that she has carefully collected over time. Visitors, as they listen to the narration by singer Yozoh drifting from nearby, are invited to imagine the lives and stories carried by these mailboxes.

Shooting Star Constructed from connected can tabs, this work offers profound insight into the artist’s mindset. The collected aluminium cans are gently washed and the tabs, with the tops and bottoms removed, are installed in rows. Amid these countless connections, Yeo was reminded of the image of meteors streaking across the night sky and named her work Shooting Star, a more familiar term for this celestial phenomenon. As an infinitely expanding possibility, like a meteor that journeys without end, a shooting star embodies a future shared by all. In different corners of the world, people drink canned soda, their hands and lips leaving a lingering warmth on the tabs. As it envisions fragile beings bound in pairs and dependent on each other, the shooting star sets off again on its journey, following the glittering threads to where other lives shine and wait.

Delivery Box Series Yea first began creating this signature series of artworks in 2017. Common delivery boxes, familiar in our everyday lives, are collected by the artist and transformed into chairs using buffer materials, wooden panels, and tape. In this exhibition, set in the museum’s lounge, the artwork takes the place of conventional seating, inviting visitors to engage with the concept of “rest.” Viewers are encouraged to sit on the pieces, examining them closely as if they were actual parcels traveling from distant places to Buk-Seoul Museum of Art. Modern delivery services, designed for human convenience, rely on relentless labor to minimize delivery times and drive the excessive use of disposable packaging. Through the Delivery Box series, the artist presents a powerful symbol of unrestrained consumption and waste within capitalist society, prompting a reconsideration of the objects around us. Additionally, by repurposing items that have reached the end of their lifecycle, Yea seeks to uncover their existential value and blur the boundaries between what is and is not a commodity.

L-OVE LE-TTE-R L-OVE LE-TTE-R is a participatory, performance-based artwork that invites audiences to join the artist in her long-standing admiration for the small yet sparkling. Visitors engage by sipping warm or cold drinks from a warmer or vending machine, wiping the can tabs, and leaving their marks. The simple act of popping open a can and taking a sip leaves a trace of the individual’s touch, breathing new life into the sparkling cans as they are wrapped in warmth and care. Through these actions, visitor-created tab threads become part of the artwork, weaving new connections. With L-OVE LE-TTE-R, Yea aims to reach a wider audience, highlighting the boundless potential of even the most delicate things. Performances will take place four times during the exhibition: on Christmas Day, December 25, 2024, and in February, May, and August 2025.

Village Village is a collection of small sets of Shooting Star pieces, united to form a cluster. The warm glow that permeates the exhibition space and the shimmering connections within it draw viewers’ attention. The can tabs, once collected from roads, are reassembled here, conveying the warmth of countless human touches. Flickering bulbs invite us to lean in and listen to their quiet stories. Like the countless city lights that blink and the glow from apartment windows that create a subtle harmony, the Village within the exhibit hall spins to its own rhythm, gleaming and waning. The occasional sound of rotation reminds us that our lives, too, move in cycles. As winter gives way to spring and summer fades back to winter, so do the various communities of beings on Earth, breathing in and out, flowing together through their passage of time. * This is an evolving piece that develops through audience participation. The artist will interact with visitors during scheduled sessions at the museum.

A Thin Node A Thin Node features retractable blinds fitted into the glass doors that divide the exhibition hall on the Lounge1, with flattened aluminium cans collected from the streets attached to each slat. Whenever Yea came across one, she meticulously cleaned and preserved it as a treasured object. Over the years, these cans have been brought together, interwoven to shape their own unique stories. Yet her gaze shifted beyond the studio―to the cans she left behind as they were not flattened. Later, they were reclaimed by scrap collectors, who repurposed them for profit, reflecting the changing roles of abandoned items. By raising and lowering the blinds, Yea transforms the space into a passage that is neither fully inside nor outside. The cans settle into the gaps of the surroundings, waiting for their next movement, like a delicate network expanding and contracting to form a symbiotic structure.

Fresh Feelings Fresh Feelings features a vending machine model introduced by Samsung Electronics in 1993 and discontinued just two years later. Over three decades, it interacted with countless hands―hands that deliberated over drink choices, retrieved cans, and refilled or emptied the machine―before finally arriving at the museum through the artist's own touch. Its fate molded by these countless marks, the vending machine now stands incorporated into the installation, resuming operation while concealing its stories as if untouched by time. The return of its incandescent glow feels like breathing life back into something once dormant. Inside, ceramic pieces shaped like beverage cans, titled Crushed Feelings, are juxtaposed with traditional cans, set against the ad slogan on the bottom panel: “Crack open the freshness of a canned beverage…” Will we truly feel refreshed when we see this vending machine, as claimed? Through the phrase “fresh feelings,” Yea ironically comments on our current state, where modern capitalism compels us to constantly expend energy in the pursuit of efficiency.

Crushed Feelings Crushed Feelings is a ceramic representation of objects such as dented and pressed aluminium cans. One day, Yea discovered a beverage can discarded on the road, left to be kicked, rolled, and eventually flattened by a passing car. This encounter led her to notice the subtle stories each can carries and to reframe the emotional heaviness she experiences toward their crushed forms by naming it “feeling.” Through meticulous crafting and glazing, Yea created imaginary cans that have lost their original identities. The surfaces of these objects are etched with words from street flyers and traces of the city, including tire prints. By gently interacting with and embracing each piece, the artist honors their intrinsic value and significance.

Meteorite The installation, known by its Korean title Byulddongdol, which conveys a more familiar interpretation of a meteorite, envisions discarded asphalt debris in urban environments as meteorites fallen from space. Asphalt, derived from the fractional distillation of petroleum, is used in road construction as asphalt concrete (a mix of asphalt and aggregates like sand and gravel). Unlike cement, which maintains rigidity, it is flexible, allowing for efficient application. However, this flexibility comes at a cost―it is easily breakable, wears out quickly, and requires frequent replacement. What happens to this material when it reaches the end of its life? The artist collected crumbling, dirt-covered fragments of asphalt, cleaned them, and brought them to the museum. Once weathered under the blazing summer sun, these pieces are now transformed, embracing a new existence as objects of attention and appreciation.

Now and Here Installed in the outdoor area of Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, Now and Here is a variation of the Shooting Star series, crafted from empty aluminium cans, tabs, coins, and more. Suspended from a telegraph pole in the museum's front yard, the piece reflects the weather of the day. Shimmering in sunlight and clanging together in strong winds, it produces irregular sounds and responds sensitively to rain and snow, acting as a mirror of nature's conditions. The artist suggests that while artificial intelligence can analyze data to forecast the weather, we should instead pay closer attention to our surroundings. Viewers are encouraged to read the sun, embrace the wind, and immerse themselves in nature’s transitions, savoring every solar term. This call to live fully in the present, beyond the digital realm, embodies a way of life that the artist shares with all who visit the museum.

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Weekdays(TUE–FRI) 10AM–8PM
SAT · SUN · Public Holidays
– Summer 10AM–7 PM
– Winter 10AM–6PM
《Seoul Culture Night》 Every Month First, Third Friday
10AM–9PM
Closed Day (01.01) , Every Monday
Regular closing days
Opening Hours The last admission is 1 hour prior to closing time
Admission Free except for special exhibitions
Address Postal Code 01783
1238, Dongil-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul, Korea(Junggye-dong)
Phone 02–2124–5248~9

A cherished gem of northeastern Seoul, the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art is SeMA’s first and largest branch opened to the public in 2013. It seeks to invent new forms of exhibitions and learning programs of contemporary art. Buk SeMA is particularly animated by vibrant local communities including a dozen art colleges as well as many other educational institutions. The experimental spirit of a younger generation of artists plays a vital part in the diverse transdisciplinary programs of Buk SeMA, which aims to become a collaborative station for the future. (Photo: ⓒ Kim YongKwan)

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