Mi-Kyung Yun Embroidered Textiles

Mi-Kyung Yun exhibition brochure, 2004

Small is beautiful, especially when it comes to textiles embroidered by Korean fibre artist Mi-Kyung Yun. I had the pleasure of sharing a studio with Mi-Yung when we were both artists-in-residence in the Harbourfront textile studio. Most, if not all, of the textiles in this fibre exhibition (at Art Space A-1 Gallery in Nagoya, Japan in 2004) were embroidered while she was at Harbourfront from 2002 to 2003.  Her skill amazed me. Each 4" X 6" doupioni silk textile was embroidered with silk thread, mounted on industrial felt, and framed in a deep IKEA shadow box that she painted a warm off-white. She dyed many of the silk fabrics, and also gessoed them. I wish I had a close-up image of the textile in the top shadow box.

Mi-Kyung Yun Snow Field, 2004

Watching Mi-Kyung embroider was an education. She would embroider a section of a textile with breath-taking stitches, and then cover it with fabric and more embroidery if she didn't like where it was going. She wasn't precious about her work, a lesson that I would learn when I studied collage a few years later. My collage teacher would say that "it's all there," meaning that what was covered was still an integral part of the piece even if others didn't know it was there. 

Mi-Kyung Yun A Wild Flower, 2004

Mi-Kyung earned a BFA (1985) and MFA (1988) from Ewha Woman's University in Seoul, Korea. As of 2004, she was an instructor at Hanyang Woman's College and at Ewha Woman's University, and a textile designer at Kwanglim Trading Company. I've tried online searches to see what she is doing now, ten years later, but if there is anything on the web, it is in Korean, a language that I do not read.

Mi-Kyung Yun Young Green, 2004

In Korea, she learned traditional Korean embroidery in a rigorous program and later served on the "Judging Committee for Korea National Qualification Examination for Ability of Embroidery" from 1992 to 2000.

Mi-Kyung Yun Moss, 2004

Moss illustrates Mi-Kyung's ability to combine traditional and contemporary embroidery techniques. It was a pleasure to work with and learn from her and I think of her often when I am stitching experimentally.