Epistle and Episteme: Yee Sookyung's The Very Best Statue and the Art Object as Social Space

Abstract

To interpret—that is, read—the art object is to encounter it as social space. But how do readers inhabit such spaces when they are not “places” at all? Through self-reference rather than representation, Korean artist Yee Sookyung's The Very Best Statue refuses to function as a sign, instead creating a thoroughfare. In comparison with Edwina Sandys's Christa and Orlan's Self-hybridizations, Yee's work sends open letters to an indeterminate public, creating knowledge (episteme) through the act of address (epistle). Yee's work invites us to “read” such “texts” in the same way that we inhabit social spaces.

Keywords:

• Space
• The social
• Performance
• Epistemology
• Reading

Many thanks to Yee Sookyung for the invitation to her studio and the conversations through email and in interview. The project would not have been possible without the assistance of Joanne Ku, who served as interpreter during the interview, and translated and transcribed the Korean sections of the interview. The anonymous readers at Text and Performance Quarterly offered pointed and generative feedback; if a clear argument emerges in this article, it is due in great part to their prompting. This research has been supported by the Sogang University Faculty Research Grant of 2012–2013.

Many thanks to Yee Sookyung for the invitation to her studio and the conversations through email and in interview. The project would not have been possible without the assistance of Joanne Ku, who served as interpreter during the interview, and translated and transcribed the Korean sections of the interview. The anonymous readers at Text and Performance Quarterly offered pointed and generative feedback; if a clear argument emerges in this article, it is due in great part to their prompting. This research has been supported by the Sogang University Faculty Research Grant of 2012–2013.

Notes

[1] According to Yee, Anyang City agreed to the terms she set forth when completing the project with the community, which included the stipulation that the city displays the statue in a public place. However, the city's bylaws prohibit the public display of religious imagery, so when Yee presented the resulting statue, the city had no public place where they could legally display it.