Yoonmi NAM

Instant is a series of mokuhanga prints within my Arranged Flowers series. It depicts chrysanthemums arranged in instant meal cups from the US, Korea, and Japan, juxtaposing the fleeting life of cut flowers with the accelerated pace of contemporary life. In Korea, white chrysanthemums signify death and funerals, underscoring the impermanence of life.
 

I am drawn to disposable containers—objects designed for brief utility but made from persistent materials—because they embody conflicting senses of time. These products, sourced from multiple cultures, also reflect my cross-cultural identity.
 

Rendered in the monochrome linework of traditional Asian woodblock prints alongside the vibrant, volumetric style of Western painting, the flowers and containers inhabit a space between traditions, mirroring my own artistic training. Through these small, ordinary moments, I explore how everyday objects quietly reveal
aspects of our contemporary society and culture.

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Yoonmi Nam is an artist born in Seoul, South Korea, and has studied in Korea, Canada, US, and Japan. Yoonmi is interested in the observation and depiction of everyday objects and occurrences, especially when they subtly suggest contradictions - a perception of time that feels both temporary and lasting and a sense of place that feels both familiar and foreign. Growing up as an only child with working parents, she often engaged in quiet observations of things around her. Experiences of living in disparate cultures with different people and their histories allowed her to notice what often is unobserved in one’s own familiar spaces. She works in traditional printmaking processes such as mokuhanga (Japanese-style water-based woodblock printing) and lithography to make imagery as well as explore other materials such as clay, glass, and paper to make three-dimensional still lifes.