Yu
Bio
Jin is a sculptor who deeply explores feelings and the inner world. She has expressed loneliness, personal religious questions, and her unique world in them as sculptures. Her work serves as a channel to capture emotions, stories, and experiences in physical figures. In particular, Jin focuses on visually expressing the complexity of emotions through the sculpture's texture, and she expects it to be sensibly communicated to the audience. She is attending Junior sculpture at RISD and still producing works based on personal experiences and emotions. She has also conducted research on personal and collective memory, and based on this work, she will continue to explore new knowledge.
Artist Statement
Art is my language, allowing me to express inner questions and feelings that cannot be fully spoken through words. People understand me through my art, and even connect more deeply than they could with my words. When someone truly understands my work, I feel a strong sense of being seen and recognized, which is why I continue to create art.
Art also connects to two essential parts of my life, games and faith. I immerse myself in the entirely new space of the game world. The world inside a game feels like a small universe governed by rules different from those of reality, and I try to understand myself within it. Through immersion, competition, and emotional turbulence, I come face-to-face with my true self.
At the same time, I find myself trapped in a competitive-gaming atmosphere and moving away from gentleness. As I get used to calculating and ranking, I move away from the forgiveness and warmth that I value in my faith. Each time, I ask myself what I believe and why I am so deeply immersed in this world.
My inspiration becomes powerful in moments of instability. These unstable moments are different depending on the situation. My experiences in church allow me to look inward in a different way. As a person of faith, I often reflect on myself. The church is a comfortable place for me, but it can also be a space that tests me. In the quiet of worship and the silence of prayer, I face the noise and anxiety within me. My faith is not simply about believing; it is a process of falling, doubting God, and disliking myself, yet trying to rise again.
In this way, games and churches hold completely different values and languages. One is a space of endless competition and immersion, while the other is a space for reflection and recovery. But the difference between the two does not bring me anxiety. It gives me creative energy. I waver between them, and inspiration always finds me in these unstable moments. The pressure I feel in the church community, the competitiveness and cultural conflict I face in games, and the tension that arises from relationships with others all shake me. Yet, they also become the energy that creates my work. For me, creation is not an escape from reality, but a way to see and understand it again. My work becomes a record of where I stand between these two worlds and an honest attempt to face the uneasiness and contradictions I feel in life.
Nothing in my life is perfect. I am an uncertain Christian, not a skilled gamer, and I often find myself in the middle. I always stand in the middle, moving between uncertain faith and desire. But it is in that very space between them that I ask myself questions, think, and slowly begin to understand. My work is the trace of those questions and reflections. Art is not about finding answers but about getting to know myself. Through that process, I continue to face and rediscover who I am.