“Foliage makers” are craftsmen who hew lifelike foliage ornaments into brackets or columns. This ornamentation on a building, which looks as natural as possible and is mainly found on churches in the High Gothic style, symbolizes life and nature. Leaf and vine motifs are also known from medieval book illumination. Here they show an affinity to nature as well as to artistry.

The questions of skill or artistic competence are also a central theme in Min Yoon's work. However, in contrast to the “fresh” and small-scale foliage in cathedrals, Min Yoon's “leaf” is oversized and in an autumnal brown tone. The edges are rolled up, partially frayed, and sewing threads are also visible. The lifelike image seduces the eye and one believes to recognize the artistic intention in the perfection of the replica.

Many works by the artist, who studied Conceptual Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, revolve around the theme of artistic production and the working conditions of artists. Simple devices such as pens and pencils, tubes of paint or writing pads are processed into assemblages. The utilitarian and product aesthetics of these objects become part of artistic discourse. The meticulously handcrafted object made of pigskin is antithetical to the mass-produced stationery, in which the diversity of creative production and the oscillation between “original” handwriting and conceptual process also become visible.

Heike Maier-Rieper, 2022 (translation: Virginia Dellenbaugh)