Finished two months ago and shown for the first time, the new series by Yendoo Jung, “Southern Rainbow Seoul,” is a return to the theme of his preceding approach, the habitats of the middle and upper-middle classes of the Korean capital. In one of the immense high-rises, distinguishable one from the other only by the enormous numbers that help you get your bearings, he photographs families posing in the living room of their apartments, all identical. In this mass of huge boxes that serve as habitats in a town totally lacking in space, the photographer chooses a frontal approach, radical and unsparing. The extent of his panoramic vision, in subtly worked realistic colors, no detail escapes us. The family, dressed in their finest apparel, poses with confidence. Every image tells a story—showing the small differences among them, though relative, in the decor and the clothing, are similar to a scientific experiment. These people in their identical apartments are yet always different. This is a meticulous lesson in documentary style, which, in its presentation, reorganizes itself by piling up storey by story, imitating the structure of the building itself.
Born in 1969 in Jinju, Korea. Lives and works in Seoul, Korea. A graduate in Fine Arts from Goldsmith College in London, United Kingdom, he has participated in numerous festivals worldwide, including the Fukuoka Triennial in Japan (2002), the Gwangju Biennale in Korea (2002), Camberwell Arts Week in London (1999), and the Shanghai Biennale in 2002. His exhibitions include Documentary Nostalgia – Modern Mondays, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (2008); Circuit Diagram, at Cell Project Space, London, UK (2006); Where I Am, at the Galeria Municipal da Mitra, in Lisbon, Portugal (1998). His work may be seen in numerous public collections in Korea, the United States, Japan, Canada, and Italy.
