Herald, 2023
RACHEL YOUN (b. 1994, USA) is an artist living and working in New Haven, CT. Working across sculpture and installation, Youn sources materials with a history of aspiration and failure through online secondhand shopping. Youn rescues electric massagers from suburban limbo, fastening artificial plants to the machines to create kinetic sculptures that are clumsy, erotic, and absurd. Haunted by their immigrant father’s pursuit of the American Dream, their work identifies with the replica that earnestly desires to be real, and the failed object that simulates care and intimacy.
Youn is currently an MFA candidate at the Yale School of Art, and prior to this, Youn has completed a BFA at the Washington University in St. Louis Sam Fox School of Design & Visual, 2017. Their works are showcased in several exhibitions including, FINDERS KEEPERS (2023), VSOP Projects, Greenport, NY, No Pain No Gain, Sargent’s Daughters (2022), New York and Revival (2022), Soy Capitán, Berlin, Germany. Youn have also attended residencies such as the ACRE Residency, Steuben, Wisconsin, United States in 2021 and was also the Artist in Residence in 2017 at Paul ArtSpace, St. Louis, Missouri, United States.