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Collection
Formation - Circle 9
Choongmok Yoo
Work Description
- Media Glass, Acrylic on canvas
- Location THE GRAND LOTTE SEOUL
Choongmok Yoo’s CIRCLE series expresses beginning, end, and circulation through water droplets. Droplets are formed as water vapor gathers in the air, symbolizing both the birth of new life and its return to circulation. This repeated flow reflects the accumulation of experience, emotion, and time.
In this work, the circular structure at the center reveals circulation. Like a circle made of points equidistant from a center, the scattered droplets and traces gather into a cyclical order. Each droplet exists as an individual point, yet also forms part of the whole, suggesting the repeated flow of creation and disappearance.
The glass droplets create shifting shadows and reflections, adding three-dimensionality to the flat surface. The rough ground, gray traces, and transparent brilliance of glass show the meeting of material and light, plane and volume.
Ultimately, the circle becomes a symbol of life’s rhythm and the flow of existence, where beginning and end remain endlessly connected.
In this work, the circular structure at the center reveals circulation. Like a circle made of points equidistant from a center, the scattered droplets and traces gather into a cyclical order. Each droplet exists as an individual point, yet also forms part of the whole, suggesting the repeated flow of creation and disappearance.
The glass droplets create shifting shadows and reflections, adding three-dimensionality to the flat surface. The rough ground, gray traces, and transparent brilliance of glass show the meeting of material and light, plane and volume.
Ultimately, the circle becomes a symbol of life’s rhythm and the flow of existence, where beginning and end remain endlessly connected.
About the Artist
Choongmok Yoo is an artist who explores time, memory, and existence through the materiality of glass. He was recognized early for his international potential.
The artist combines glass droplets with rough jute canvas, expressing the dual nature of glass—transparent yet solid, strong yet fragile. To him, water droplets are not merely a representation of nature. They are a symbol of beginning and end, formation and circulation, and the traces of memory that remain between presence and disappearance. As light changes and the viewer moves, the shadows of the droplets also shift, allowing the work to be experienced as a changing phenomenon rather than a fixed image.
Based on Korean traditional colors, patterns, architecture, and sentiment, Choongmok Yoo reinterprets the beauty of Korean tradition in a modern way. The vertical and horizontal structures in his work are inspired by traditional Korean windows, while the colors recall obangsaek, dancheong, and hanbok. In his recent works, restrained colors, ink spreading into jute, empty space, and the transparency of glass create a more condensed sensibility. Through these elements, his droplets become a lens that connects the past and the present, inviting viewers to reflect on time, memory, and Korean identity.
The artist combines glass droplets with rough jute canvas, expressing the dual nature of glass—transparent yet solid, strong yet fragile. To him, water droplets are not merely a representation of nature. They are a symbol of beginning and end, formation and circulation, and the traces of memory that remain between presence and disappearance. As light changes and the viewer moves, the shadows of the droplets also shift, allowing the work to be experienced as a changing phenomenon rather than a fixed image.
Based on Korean traditional colors, patterns, architecture, and sentiment, Choongmok Yoo reinterprets the beauty of Korean tradition in a modern way. The vertical and horizontal structures in his work are inspired by traditional Korean windows, while the colors recall obangsaek, dancheong, and hanbok. In his recent works, restrained colors, ink spreading into jute, empty space, and the transparency of glass create a more condensed sensibility. Through these elements, his droplets become a lens that connects the past and the present, inviting viewers to reflect on time, memory, and Korean identity.
Choongmok Yoo (b. 1977, Republic of Korea)
MA in Glass, University of Sunderland(UK)
