Portrait of a “Human Face”: Existence without Expression

Yuki Konno

In this exhibition, artist Yoo Hyung Joo’s explores the human face. Here, we encounter Yoo’s canvas screens and the myriad of his three-dimensional “faces”. In this instance of facial emphasis, how are we to understand and differentiate the human expression and face? The face is used to identify a person and compositionally allows for external recognition and access to the inner mind. Facial parts such as the eyes and nose are key markers of distinguishing people (and so their identities)-their totality creating for facial expressions. As such, expressions are often understood as separate from the face,  as features change according to expressions that ultimately come from within. Facial expressions, then, effectively articulate our emotions and actively contort our monotonous faces.

However, akin to facial features, expressions are ultimately functions that are formed by the inner. Whether guided by an innate compass or ruled by the external forces of societal roles and pressures, we express in accordance with our emotions. From this perspective, what is painted in his work are not expressions because facial expressions are visual processes of emotions-whether negative or positive. Yet, it is difficult to assume Yoo’s “faces” as mere ordinary portraits as they lack both identifiable physical traits and discernible emotive expressions. Like unidentified masses of land, they are devoid of arrangement necessary for human expression.

As such, it is difficult to connect the various faces to identifiable expressions in Yoo’s works despite his use of emotively suggestive labels such a as “heart”, “angry”, and “smile”. Yoo’s rejection of even the basic arrangement required of portraits denotes further rejection of natural expressions and their roles in his works. In this state of unspecified mass and chaos, Yoo-rather than transcending the calm superficiality of portraits or the inner whirl of emotive expressions-attitudinally roots to his own self by unfettering from the chain of societal roles and customs. When engaging with Yoo’s art, people will undoubtedly find it difficult to discern sembalances of expression and the underlying emotions of these figures precisely due to this formless nature of his faces.

These faces do not characterize specific individuals or persons, nor reveal any of their feelings. In this perspective, their inner psychologies and minds are not fully apparent. As viewers are challenged in projecting and empathizing with the paintings, it offers proof that identifiable and distinguishable features in faces and consequently the “inner” are crucial in our everyday discernment of both fictional and real persons. Therefore, despite the fictionality of the works, it is problematic to establish an oppositional discussion of “seeing” and discerning Yoo’s faces as if they were real. This results from our tendency to judge what is externally revealed-whether real or fictional.

“A human face” is inherently different from “a person’s face”. Despite the artists’ intentions, what we as viewers ultimately encounter in the exhibition halls are “human” faces. Here, what we see are faces not indicative of certain individual and their emotions, but rather faces reflective of how we as humans live: his colors depict the materialization of artificiality and its reenactment and the unbridled, chance expressions that paint our essence-not only between the lines of the concrete and abstract, but between the sway of capricious inner whims and the carefully arranged physical features and expressions. In short, what we encounter are human faces that are neither emotional nor rational. Yoo’s pieces break down the seemingly traditional commonality of the human condition in portrait that are bounded by rational order and influenced by emotions and expressions. In their refusal to deviate from simple emotions and society factors, Yoo’s faces continue their human existence as beings wrought from their own sense of depth.