Biography

Jazoo Yang (born 1979 in South Korea) is interested in the evolution of cities and the nostalgic poetry that emerges from popular neighborhoods that are being rapidly demolished in urban redevelopment areas. Architecture plays an important role in Yang’s artistic practice. She is perhaps best known for her Dots series, in which she covers a house slated for demolition with her thumbprint. In Korea, the thumbprint – or “jijang” – has a legal and personal binding power similar to a signature. With a single thumbprint, entire communities can be condemned to destruction, people can be bankrupted, and millions of dollars can be exchanged. The work is thus a protest against corruption and apathy in Korea’s real estate market. “Jijang is more of a public expression of promise, contract, pledge, or oath,” she says. “Like the seal of Western nobles and royalty, it also means to present oneself.” Yang explains: “The act of imprinting each red jijang is a promise to remember all which is gone, and a temporal and spatial record.”

Yang has expanded her Dots series to include the issue of refugees and migrants in Europe and beyond. Working with local immigrants, Yang discusses their stories, their histories, their existence as they mark the wall together. These imprints act as a record of the moment while remaining completely silent.