ARTISTS LOCKED DOWN – DAIN YOON
‘Dainception’ by Dain Yoon (@designdain) This, the first in a series of original works created for our ‘Artists Locked Down’ project, ingeniously depicts the recent continuous daily loop experienced by many of us; Sleep > Zoom/Facetime > Repeat.
DAIN YOON LOCKDOWN Q&A
How have you been feeling during lockdown?
I felt it was depressing for a moment. Because many of my plans got changed due to this pandemic. But it’s not only for me, the whole world has changed. So I’m trying to focus on my work, and the shelter-in-place actually helps me to stay focused.
I’m working on a few of my own artistic projects right now, for future art shows – as many of the commercial work has been delayed because of the current situation.
Before lockdown, I was focused on a lot of commercial collaborations, but the current situation has actually helped me to focus on my own artistic viewpoint. As I’m spending most of this time alone, I’m thinking and talking to myself a lot more than before. Although It’s a painful process at times, I do actually think pain has always been a fertile ground for my personal and artistic growth.
What are you doing to keep sane? What are you reading / listening to/ watching?
Keep motivated, keep studying and keep working.
Especially this time, when I’m painting, I turn on debate tv shows and listen to the radio. Listening to the many different social issues is interesting and I enjoy to hear the power of words. It’s interesting. Because I am working the whole day, I think I must have listened to over 100 episodes of TV debates already. Haha!
I also love listening to 90-00’s K-ballads. I was a child at that time so that music feels like a time warp. That music is very impressive and sensitive to me.
What has inspired you /your work during lockdown?
Lockdown has made me more aware of what I’ve been missing. Health, for example. I had overworked my body by being too hard on myself. But, now I’ve started doing pilates regularly, focussing more on what I eat and more skincare, which all leads to better mental care and health.
About Dain Yoon
Often referred to as a ‘makeup artist’, Dain Yoon is actually a classically trained painter who happens to use herself as her canvas.
Although her work looks photoshopped to some, each piece is 100% authentic, painted by herself, in mirror image, on herself. Each piece of work can take anywhere from 3 up to 12 hours to create. Her photorealistic illusions of eyes, lips and faces have many gazing, feeling dizzy or even freaked out.
Since childhood, Dain Yoon has had a gift for painting. Her talent allowed her to attend the most prestigious arts schools in South Korea: Yewon Arts Secondary, Seoul Arts High School and Korea National University of Arts, where she graduated both at the top of her class.
Great painting skills, however, are only half of the magical equation. Yoon’s sharp observation and fascination with the complexity of human beings and their emotions elevates her art to a higher level:
“The real face reveals itself underneath the hand that hid it, expressing how the first impression of a person does not tell the whole story.” Dain Yoon.
With her art, Yoon explores a plethora of multi-faceted ways to eloquently express a person’s diversity, as well as the portrayal of sensations arising from the impressions of her artistic upbringing. With her mother also being an artist, and a father employed in the department of architecture, family has greatly affected her artistic exploration within her own favorite medium: painting.
In recent past, Dain Yoon has broadened her artistic horizons in many aspects. Having recently moved to the USA, projects and collaborations are steadily becoming larger scale, more diverse in fields of fashion and technology, as well as challenging, through a variety of different mediums far beyond the tip of her paintbrush.
Over time, Yoon’s work has found its place into several important art collections through exhibitions and fairs, and is rapidly gaining notoriety worldwide.
