Jihee Min

Artist: Jihee Min

Title: “Teacups”

"A cup of tea is comforting. It soothes, calms, and balances body and mind. A warm drink gives a sense of caring, brings people together, and invites anyone and everyone regardless their cultural and/or demographic backgrounds.

Teacups (001-030) displays an overlay of thirty vintage teacups found in a cabinet of an over-a-century old mansion. The image creates a soft assembly of imprints where the subject becomes semi-abstract with layering of forms that appear, disappear, and re-appear.  The work is easy to recognize, without being too literal.

The floral designs in the cups reference nature where blossoms happen in every season. This incites a sense of hope to the patients and visitors of CAMH. The green tone in the cup reduces stress, and provides calming and restorative emotions to inspire positive healing in CAMH’s therapeutic environment.  Dream-like and abstract, the simplicity of the form provides an open reading of the work. The work attempts to find beauty in mundane object, and invite viewers to immerse into their own imagination where warmth and comfort becomes a foundation to a healthy recovery.

---Teacups (001-030) is part of a series entitled Teacup Series where one hundred forty nine vintage teacups are captured and portrayed into five distinct objects.  The proposed work is the first of the five sets."

- Jihee Min

Artist: Jihee Min

Title: “How to catch a cloud and pin it down”

"How to catch a cloud and pin it down is part of a series of cyanotypes entitled Being part of here.

Inspired by a flock of migrating birds that travel back and forth between two homes, the series Being part of here explores romantic notion of flying in relation to the artist’s yearning for home and desire to belong.

This proposed work How to catch a cloud and pin it down portrays Canadian landscape where a small figure roams into the dreamy scenery. The performing artist carries a clapping device on her back which claps and flaps like a flock of flying birds. The character wanders into the vast fields of Eastern Canadian landscape, symbolically displaying the artist’s ongoing journey to adapt and belong in a foreign land, situating a meaningful layer to Canada’s multicultural identity.

The work poetically conveys nostalgia with the use of cyanotype, which is an outdated camera-less photographic technic that produces cyan-blue print. This makes the work almost surreal, inviting the viewers to immerse into their own personal narratives.

How to catch a cloud and pin it down displays a magnificent panorama of Canadian landscape, emitting positive energy for fast recovery. The scenery is easy to recognize, relating to anyone in the community regardless of their cultural and demographic background. The roaming figure stands as a symbol for compassion and encouragement, portraying hope for those who may struggle with realities.  The cyan-blue tones of cyanotype reduces stress, and provides calming and restorative emotions to inspire positive healing in CAMH’s therapeutic environment."

- Jihee Min