UJOO + LIMHEEYOUNG

ARTIST BIO & ARTIST STATEMENT

Ujoo + Limheeyoung are a husband-and-wife team of media artists based in Korea, who explore the fantasy world and address the theme of absurdity of reality using various mediums. Their goal is to give a concrete form for the realization of fantasy. They regard fantasies not merely as imaginations but as an indispensable tool that sustains them in reality. However, imagination cannot be sustained without real-time. 

The works are originated from a question of, “What would happen if I had a time where the unrealistic world and the reality to which we belong coincide?”. Ujoo & Limheeyoung feel that the only connection between fantasy and reality can be realized when the fantasy world moves within the same time frame as our world. They see time as a line distinguishing reality and unreality and as a channel that allows us to travel and connect with the fantasy world. To create a point of intersection of real-time and fantasy, they create devices from the fantasy world that possess a structure that moves according to real-time. 

Ujoo & Limheeyoung's purpose is to bring a realization of the fantasy world, not to repudiating or escaping reality. It is to explore another undiscovered aspect of the world in which we live through a world of fantasy and to sustain that aspect within reality.

Ujoo+Limheeyoung have been invited to solo exhibitions, including "Machine with hair caught in it" at Sahngup Gallery, "It was beautiful" at PlaceMAK, "PINK ROAD" at Gallery Hyundai, "The dark eating machine" at Kim Chong Yung Museum, and "Window Gallery" at Gallery Hyundai in Korea to name a few. Their works were exhibited in numerous group exhibitions internationally, including "Tech Arts for Collectors!" at Zurcher Gallery in New York, USA; "Machine Culture" at The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in Pittsburgh, USA; "Humans Being Digital" at The Lowry in Manchester, UK; "Da Vinci Creative 2017" at Seoul Art Space in Seoul, Korea; "International Digital Art Biennial" at Arsenal Contemporary Art in Montreal, Canada; and "Fermented Souls" at Waterfall Gallery in New York, USA, among many. Ujoo+Limheeyoung has won several grant opportunities from Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture and participated in the "Seoul City Nanji Art Studio" residency program in Seoul, Korea.