siren eun young jung

Over the last eight years, siren eun young jung (b. 1974, Korea) has been investigating and challenging cultural expectations and genre constructs in Korean society through the lens of Yeosung Gukgeuk, a traditional type of Korean theatre combining singing and dancing that reached its peak of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, falling out of favour thereafter. While Yeosung Gukgeuk maintains the conventional roles of melodrama, it exclusively features women actors who perform all characters in an intense process of genre-shifting. Working across a wide range of mediums such as films, photographs, performances, and installations, the artist has produced several works, endowed with a lush visual imagery, that deeply engage the aging community of Yeosung Gukgeuk practitioners addressing issues of resistance, affect, and performativity.

siren eun young jung holds a M.F.A. in Painting from Ewha Womans University, Korea and an M.A. in Feminist Theory and Practice in the Visual Arts from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. In 2015 she earned a doctoral degree in Fine Art from Ewha Womans University with a dissertation titled, “The Politics of Gender and the Aesthetics of Dissensus.” Her works have been included in numerous group exhibitions such as: Taipei Biennial 2016 Taiwan (2016); Discordant Harmony, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2015); 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, QAGOMA, Australia (2015); The Future is Now, MAXXI, Italy (2014); Something in space escapes our attempts at surveying, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Germany (2014). In 2013, she was awarded the Hermès Foundation Missulsang Prize.