8 x 10” B&W silver gelatin prints from colour 2 ¼” film
14 ¼ x 16 ½” framed
1991/2016
ONLY 5 LEFT! Individual price | $475
Funds raised support facility and technical upgrades at VIVO. Our goal is to be B.C.’s most well-equipped and comprehensive media arts centre run by and for artists.
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Statement
Jin-me Yoon has revisited her film negative archive to produce Hey You, Ya You! (Jimmie Yoo), a set of 8 x 10” silver gelatin prints originally shot in 1991 on colour 2 ¼” film. Bridging nearly three decades of Yoon’s artistic practice, the work testifies to the artist’s sustained investment in notions of performativity involving the intersubjective formation of identities and the apparatus of the camera.
Hey You, Ya You! (Jimmie Yoo) depicts one of Yoon’s alter egos: a rugged man of ambiguous identity who points at the viewer in a gesture of interpellation—a concept borrowed from Althusser proposing that social, political and historical circumstances produce subjects who are always-already implicated rather than self-produced.
In the age of high definition digital photography, ubiquitous screens, and perfectly staged selfies, the prints’ deliberate imperfections point to another provocation. By degrading the colour 2 ¼” film negative and printing it in black and white, the artist has rendered a set of rough and punchy prints that intentionally display disparities in contrast and exposition, and reveal dust marks and specks. The result is a repetition of deliberately flawed, spectral surrogates of the character, calling up our entangled and repressed racist and colonial histories.
By revisiting Hey You, Ya You! (Jimmie Yoo), Yoon returns to her early photographic practice and a period of her life (the mid ’80s and early ’90s) that was foundational in her development as an artist and member of the Vancouver artistic community. Specially producing this set of fifteen prints in support of VIVO’s 2016 renovations campaign is a way for the artist to reinterpret her own archive, but also to rearticulate her continuing ties to the artist-run community. VIVO Media Arts Centre is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with Jin-me Yoon by rendering accessible this previously unseen body of work.
VIVO is extremely grateful to Jin-me Yoon for her donation of this work and her continuing support of VIVO and its programs for media artists.
VIVO is located in the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples in a warehouse space at 2625 Kaslo Street south of East Broadway at the end of E 10th. Transit line 9 stops at Kaslo Street on Broadway. From the bus stop, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight decline. The closest skytrain station is Renfrew Station, which is three blocks south-east of VIVO and has an elevator. From there, the path is paved, curbless, and on a slight incline. There is parking available at VIVO, including wheelchair access parking. There is a bike rack at the entrance. The front entrance leads indoors to a set of 7 stairs to the lobby.
A wheelchair ramp is located at the west side of the main entrance. The ramp has two runs: the first run is 20 feet long, and the second run is 26 feet. The ramp is 60 inches wide. The slope is 1:12. The ramp itself is concrete and has handrails on both sides. There is an outward swinging door (34 inch width) at the top of the ramp leading to a vestibule. A second outward swinging door (33 inch width) opens into the exhibition space. Buzzers and intercoms are located at both doors to notify staff during regular office hours or events to unlock the doors. Once unlocked, visitors can use automatic operators to open the doors.
There are two all-gender washrooms. One has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The other is a single room with a urinal and is wheelchair accessible: the door is 33 inches wide and inward swinging, without automation. The toilet has 11 inch clearance on the left side and a handrail.
To reach the bathrooms from the studio, exit through the double doors and proceed straight through the lobby and down the hall . Turn left, and the two bathrooms will be on your right side. The closest one has a stall and is not wheelchair accessible. The far bathroom is accessible.
Through photo and video based installations, Jin-me Yoon explores questions concerning identity, history, place and subjectivity in an accelerated globalized era. Actively contributing to Vancouver’s artistic community since the mid 1980s, she has exhibited extensively across Canada as well as internationally and is represented in numerous public collections. Yoon is a Professor at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts.