Mooned Noon by Tyler Woolcott
This is the text written by Tyler Woolcott, Director of StudioVisit, in response to Yva Jung’s works presented at the Florence Trust Summer Show in London, 2019. It was published in the Florence Trust catalogue.
Yva Jung has developed a new body of work based on themes related to Monday, or ‘day of the moon,’ such as the cycle of the seasons, tide and female fertility. Jung’s work conjures a sense of journey, longing and rhythm based on the Moon-day. Rising from the floor of the church’s altar space like the tombs of deceased saints is a new series of concrete sculptures entitled, “Mooned Noon.” The sculptures conjure at once a swelling drop of water, pregnant belly, or the phases of the moon. The bumps on the surface also mimic the shape the mouth makes when pronouncing the work’s title.
The looped video, “Spooning the Moon,” is projected onto the altar wall. In the video, the artist holds a spoon up to the moon as if eclipsing it in front of the camera. The moon’s reflection shimmers across the spoon as she slowly rotates it. The work summons the mythological writings of novelist Eudora Welty. “The word ‘moon,’” wrote Welty, “came into my mouth as though fed to me out of a silver spoon. Held in my mouth the moon became a word.”
The video, “Monday Morning,” captures the artist’s weekly ritualistic performance in which she collects dew drops from a field using everyday objects such as a spoon, sock or salt sachet. As Mondays come and go, so too does Jung’s repetitive intervention of capturing the drops of water at dawn before they disappear.
Parallels can be drawn to the paintings of artist On Kawara, such as his “Today Series/Date Paintings,” 1966 – 2014. While Kawara’s date paintings record historical events or personal anecdotes, Jung’s work integrates daily encounters with lunar cycles. In particular, she uses unique contexts to influence the work, such as the concrete bump sculpture, “Mooned Noon,” that has been situated in the church’s garden for the duration of her residency, which collected damp and lichen over time and has taken on the weathered appearance of a gravestone.
