Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Dain Yoon's Amazing Optical Illusion Body Art Reimagines Her Humanity
mymodernmet.com: Like many artists, Dain Yoon enjoys working with paint. But it’s not a canvas that she puts pigment to—it's her own body. Using an extensive palette of paints and brushes, she applies the pigment to her skin and transforms herself into amazing optical illusions.
I love this artist but I was really disappointed with the article. Dain Yoon has been popular on social media for a while and this isn't the first time I'd seen her work. I hoped the article would have an interview about her process or the meaning of the pieces. Regardless, I love the pieces where she plays with perception. The one where she "smuggles" herself and her body looks squiggly is absolutely amazing. These optical illusion-esque art pieces are very inspiring for designers to because we are playing with the perception of the audience in quite the same way--making things appear like they are there when they are not and making other things disappear. Theater design is all about using allusions to transport the audience to the world of the play.
This is SO impressive. From somebody who has been trying to wear simple makeup more often, I get turned off by my inability to draw one straight line of eyeliner. The images in this article showing some of Yoon’s work would not only be impressive feats of art on paper… but on her own face! It was just last week where I made a comment to my roommate about how hard I think Asian drag stars might have with makeup because the shape of our eyelids are usually different from the classic eurocentric features. To create these kinds of illusions are impressive as is, but having to work on yourself, and see all the art she is creating through a mirror… wow! I couldn’t even begin to think about where to start. Also, I love seeing Asian women in general do incredible artistic feats. Dain Yoon is somebody I’ve never been introduced to until now, and I know that I will be following her work and begin to look up to her.
I think it is reasonable to say that she is painter and certain type of performer at the same time. Using herself as the tool to express her arts let the audience relate more to the artwork than just painting on the canvas. I have watched several interviews of her and the time-lapse videos in her own YouTube Channel, and all her other works are absolutely amazing as well. I wish the article had focused more on her life and messages beyond the painting, instead of just listing all her artworks. They did include a short quote from her, but there are so many more about her to learn. Just by reading the article, people would think that she is just an illusion artist, but her talent is not limited to doing makeups. In fact, she does costume designs, graphic designs, and other designs. She also has done a number of collaboration with plays in Korea and I hope to see her more working in the theatrical field.
Wow! This is so incredible. i can't imagine having enough talent to create something this beautiful on paper, let alone on somebody's body. These types of art have always been so intriguing to me, and I agree with Jin above that she is almost a performer. This form of art reminds me of the man on Instagram who creates art with tape and strings and drills and just makes something that is interesting to watch, and having a little bit of a performance as well. Illusions are such an interesting part of art, because it really suspends your mind to look at. I am so grateful to live in a world where people can stretch their imagination to create art like this, that while being visually stunning also makes you distrust your eyes. I think there is a healthy amount of distrust that exists in almost all forms of art, that you can see something and not even comprehend how it is done, and almost not believe your eyes. What a stunning way to use the human body as a canvas.
This kind of art absolutely amazes me. She utilizes all the technique and precision that is needed for a regular painting except her canvas is her body. This presents even more challenges and complications for creating art. Especially with her optical illusion work, Yoon has to have a strong understanding of her face and it’s curves along with the rules of perspective to make her painting appear flat and not warped. Additionally, Yoon does this on herself, not even a model, so all of the work is done looking through a mirror. I can’t even imagine how she accomplished the keyboard design. All of this work definitely pays off because Yoon really does look transparent in the designs where she becomes other objects. The one thing that makes me a little sad is how Yoon has to wipe off her art at the end of the day. While there is a photo being captured, I won’t be able to see the fine work up close in a museum like a traditional piece of art. Maybe there is something beautiful about that.
Artists in general have always astounded me because I myself am not very skilled in that area but people that can seem to bend and shape reality with their work like she can is absolutely stunning. Her art is like augmented reality by hand and it's even more insane that she does it on herself. Given how important perspective is to creating optical illusions I've always found it even more impressive and fascinating when the artists use themselves as a canvas since you then have to contort in all kinds of ways to paint yourself. Like in the one where her entire side is covered in hands how did she paint over there? I got really interested in watching people that paint people when a Netflix show, the name of which is escaping me right now, came out that was competitive body painting. Being able to work with and against the natural curvatures and features as well as hair is no small feat. Choosing to work with a canvas of different colors, textures, sweatiness, hairiness, and curvatures is definitely not taking the easy route as an artist.
This artist is amazing! I can’t imagine how hard it must be to do all these works in one sitting on a canvas you can sometimes only see through a mirror. I would love to know more (or anything) about her process and the logistics of making these illusions. I wonder if she has the camera set up the whole time to see herself from the perspective the photo will be taken from and works off that view the whole time. Either way, how she is able to bypass the curves and shadows of her body to make her arm flow seamlessly into her head or make her head indistinguishable from her neck is insane. I would love to know how she got into this very niche field and what her background is. How does one discover they have a passion for sitting for seven hours and painting a thumb on their face?
7 comments:
I love this artist but I was really disappointed with the article. Dain Yoon has been popular on social media for a while and this isn't the first time I'd seen her work. I hoped the article would have an interview about her process or the meaning of the pieces. Regardless, I love the pieces where she plays with perception. The one where she "smuggles" herself and her body looks squiggly is absolutely amazing. These optical illusion-esque art pieces are very inspiring for designers to because we are playing with the perception of the audience in quite the same way--making things appear like they are there when they are not and making other things disappear. Theater design is all about using allusions to transport the audience to the world of the play.
This is SO impressive. From somebody who has been trying to wear simple makeup more often, I get turned off by my inability to draw one straight line of eyeliner. The images in this article showing some of Yoon’s work would not only be impressive feats of art on paper… but on her own face!
It was just last week where I made a comment to my roommate about how hard I think Asian drag stars might have with makeup because the shape of our eyelids are usually different from the classic eurocentric features. To create these kinds of illusions are impressive as is, but having to work on yourself, and see all the art she is creating through a mirror… wow! I couldn’t even begin to think about where to start.
Also, I love seeing Asian women in general do incredible artistic feats. Dain Yoon is somebody I’ve never been introduced to until now, and I know that I will be following her work and begin to look up to her.
I think it is reasonable to say that she is painter and certain type of performer at the same time. Using herself as the tool to express her arts let the audience relate more to the artwork than just painting on the canvas. I have watched several interviews of her and the time-lapse videos in her own YouTube Channel, and all her other works are absolutely amazing as well. I wish the article had focused more on her life and messages beyond the painting, instead of just listing all her artworks. They did include a short quote from her, but there are so many more about her to learn. Just by reading the article, people would think that she is just an illusion artist, but her talent is not limited to doing makeups. In fact, she does costume designs, graphic designs, and other designs. She also has done a number of collaboration with plays in Korea and I hope to see her more working in the theatrical field.
Wow! This is so incredible. i can't imagine having enough talent to create something this beautiful on paper, let alone on somebody's body. These types of art have always been so intriguing to me, and I agree with Jin above that she is almost a performer. This form of art reminds me of the man on Instagram who creates art with tape and strings and drills and just makes something that is interesting to watch, and having a little bit of a performance as well. Illusions are such an interesting part of art, because it really suspends your mind to look at. I am so grateful to live in a world where people can stretch their imagination to create art like this, that while being visually stunning also makes you distrust your eyes. I think there is a healthy amount of distrust that exists in almost all forms of art, that you can see something and not even comprehend how it is done, and almost not believe your eyes. What a stunning way to use the human body as a canvas.
This kind of art absolutely amazes me. She utilizes all the technique and precision that is needed for a regular painting except her canvas is her body. This presents even more challenges and complications for creating art. Especially with her optical illusion work, Yoon has to have a strong understanding of her face and it’s curves along with the rules of perspective to make her painting appear flat and not warped. Additionally, Yoon does this on herself, not even a model, so all of the work is done looking through a mirror. I can’t even imagine how she accomplished the keyboard design. All of this work definitely pays off because Yoon really does look transparent in the designs where she becomes other objects. The one thing that makes me a little sad is how Yoon has to wipe off her art at the end of the day. While there is a photo being captured, I won’t be able to see the fine work up close in a museum like a traditional piece of art. Maybe there is something beautiful about that.
Artists in general have always astounded me because I myself am not very skilled in that area but people that can seem to bend and shape reality with their work like she can is absolutely stunning. Her art is like augmented reality by hand and it's even more insane that she does it on herself. Given how important perspective is to creating optical illusions I've always found it even more impressive and fascinating when the artists use themselves as a canvas since you then have to contort in all kinds of ways to paint yourself. Like in the one where her entire side is covered in hands how did she paint over there? I got really interested in watching people that paint people when a Netflix show, the name of which is escaping me right now, came out that was competitive body painting. Being able to work with and against the natural curvatures and features as well as hair is no small feat. Choosing to work with a canvas of different colors, textures, sweatiness, hairiness, and curvatures is definitely not taking the easy route as an artist.
This artist is amazing! I can’t imagine how hard it must be to do all these works in one sitting on a canvas you can sometimes only see through a mirror. I would love to know more (or anything) about her process and the logistics of making these illusions. I wonder if she has the camera set up the whole time to see herself from the perspective the photo will be taken from and works off that view the whole time. Either way, how she is able to bypass the curves and shadows of her body to make her arm flow seamlessly into her head or make her head indistinguishable from her neck is insane. I would love to know how she got into this very niche field and what her background is. How does one discover they have a passion for sitting for seven hours and painting a thumb on their face?
Post a Comment