Jazoo Yang, born in 1979, is a South Korean artist who often creates site-specific installations using found materials, and in so doing reveals the layers of history embedded in urban spaces. Playing an important role in her work are architecture, the exploration of urban environments, and city development. Her best-known Dots series started after she spent time exploring buildings slated for demolition, communicating with residents facing eviction and listening to their stories and memories.

“Alleys, traditional houses, trees and everything that took a long time to embellish are gone in an instant without a trace. The act of imprinting each red Jijang is a promise to remember all of this and a temporal and spatial record.”

The thumbprint—or “Jijang”—has great legal power in Korea and is equivalent to a signature; with just one thumbprint, people’s destinies can be shaped. Covering a building planned for demolition with her thumbprints, Yang questions the progress of urban redevelopment. When creating her new artwork for the exhibition at the museum, Jazoo Yang made reference to her Dots series and collaborated with a group of senior citizens who lived not far from the museum. This community mural aims to bring to the surface overlooked narratives and to give a voice to social groups which might otherwise remain invisible.

Commissioned work