Artist brings wall drawings to Hanes Art Center

Thousands of thin strips of black tape now decorate the John and June Allcott Gallery of Hanes Art Center. The department’s newest exhibition, “Material World,” is a complex wall drawing made by Korean-born artist Heeseop Yoon.

Yoon, who explores the nuances surrounding cluttered spaces, has been installing her latest project in the gallery for two days.

“It’s huge, and the first thing you see when you walk into the art building,” said assistant art professor Jina Valentine.

“Like this morning even though the piece was still under construction, there were a dozen students gathered outside of the gallery watching her work.”

Tyler Niggel, a sophomore computer science major, was walking through Hanes this morning when the artist at work caught his attention.

“I just had to stop and watch her work,” he said.

“I couldn’t tell what she was doing, and I was actually almost late for class because I lost track of time. It was amazing watching art develop before my eyes.”

Niggel said the amalgamation of black tape was beautiful and very quickly made. Little did he know, Yoon spent two months designing before ever touching the tape.

“My drawings are all representational in that they are hybrids of still life scenes of cluttered places,” Yoon said.

Yoon often travels to abandoned warehouses, storage spaces or basements with a camera. While there, she takes pictures of eclectic materials piled and intertwined about each other. These cluttered messes, while maybe seen as junk to others, become the still life scenes behind her complex and detailed wall drawings. A statement on the material world, this is a central theme throughout her art.

“Usually when you see my drawings, you can barely recognize what the background is,” Yoon said.

“To properly try, you need to spend enough time in front of the piece in order to figure out what you’re looking at and what sort of material I used for the original drawing. Through doing this though, I feel that it gives viewers a fresh perspective about drawing and the things they look at every day.”

“When I started working with this type of art I was experimenting away from normal drawing materials such as pens, pencils and brushes but now I am using mostly black tape. I was looking for materials that were not easy to draw with and that challenged the act of drawing. I tried a bunch of materials but tape tends to work best for the project.”

Tonight’s opening reception for the exhibit will begin with a gallery talk with Yoon and the show’s curator, Dexter Wimberley. Together they will discuss the work that went into producing the exhibition and will answer questions from viewers.

The piece will be showcased until Oct. 3 at Hanes, and both Valentine and Yoon said they encourage more students to see it while it’s on display — provided they have enough time before class.

arts@dailytarheel.com