Sean Yang

A Chip off the Old Block Sean Yang

Cast Bronze, Wood, Gesso, Gold Leaf, Acrylic, Mineral Oil 5' x 5" x 5" $5000 each

A “chip off the old block” means someone is just like one of their parents in character or behavior, making each individual unique and special. Prominent educator Erik Erikson’s view on identity development and understanding different stages of human development was helpful for me to reflect myself on multilayered lenses and thought filters of others. Having flexibility in one’s perspective and being able to take others’ perspectives is challenging to any human being because we come from different backgrounds. The key is to keep adding more conscious effort to improve myself as a true adult and to lift each other up. That’s what democracy is really about. However, our reality is different because people in power choose to hoard it all, although the universe and earth provide enough resources for every man, woman, and child to live comfortably. It’s not just about saving money and living better. It’s about “We The People.”

Monsanto Babies Sean Yang

Cast Clay (Porcelain, Black Mountain and B-Mix), Clear Glaze 5" x 12" x 5" $1200 Each

My “Monsanto Babies” series started as a social and political statement about the problematic nature of industrialized food to help inform the public just how widespread the problem of our contaminated food really is. Consumers are the top of this food chain and we ingest, often unknowingly, all the hormones and chemicals added to the product along the processed way. Worse, the enormous power of the food industry has blocked any effort to regulate or educate people about what they eat. American names like Monsanto or Purina are sold in Asia and Europe and this food pollution is a global problem. The population has little to no idea just what is in processed foods. Huge corporate farms grow or buy grains whose seeds have been genetically altered, which they feed to livestock after chemical additions of synthetic hormones. Many communities have no alternative to processed foods.

The Pigeonhole Sean Yang

Cast Resin, Wood, Found Objects, Nuts and Bolts, Pigments, Acrylic Paint 24" x 24" x 8" $8000

“The Pigeonhole” represents compartmentalized obsessions. “Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar,” Sigmund Freud once said. A cigar just being a cigar means that it doesn’t need to be a big phallic symbol or have a grandiose academic thesis written about it. What was it that produced this idea of obsessions? A morbid thought suddenly overcame me, and it had a power of its own that I could not control. The primitive phenomenon of obsession still exists in a civilized world as a form of folklore genre, symbolism as mythical ideas. Dream images were called “archaic remnants” by Freud. They form a bridge between the ways we consciously express our thoughts and a more primitive, colorful and pictorial form of expression. Dream images appeal directly to feeling and emotion when one dreams. “The Pigeonhole” contrasts between the “controlled” thoughts in waking life and the wealth of dream images.