요이 Yo-E Ryou

Ellipses, 2025–2026

Ellipses is a three-part moving image series that traces breath, labor, and transmission through partial views and non-linear time, emerging from the artist’s long-term relationship with the haenyeo community of Jeju Island. Translating sensations that cannot be directly captured underwater into the temporality of the body, the works move between rest, work, and practice—attending to moments that often remain unseen.

Rather than forming a linear narrative, the series unfolds as a circulating ecology of living time:

• Ellipses 0 — Practice (2026): breath as a shared, embodied process of learning

• Ellipses I — Rest (2026): breath as collective rest beyond productivity

• Ellipses II — Shaping (2025): breath as repetition between labor and rest, where knowledge passes from body to body

Often presented in relation to Breath Orchestra, the series is activated through the spatial separation and re-synchronization of image and sound within installation.

작가 노트 Artist note

말줄임표(ellipsis)는 때로 긴장이나 배려 속에서, 혹은 아직 풀리지 않은 무언가를 남겨두기 위해 사용된다. 타원(ellipse)은 거의 완전한 균형의 형태에 가까워지려 하지만, 나는 어딘가 어긋나 있고 부드럽게 불완전한 달걀 모양의 비정형적 타원에 왜 더 끌리는지, 딱 떨어지는 답이 없는 질문을 이어가고 있다.

말로 다 담기 어려운 것들에서 시작된 이번 작업의 과정은 완벽한 원이 아니라, 수많은 시도와 망설임, 그리고 어느 지점에서는 예기치 않은 전환을 품은 채 주변을 빙 돌아가는 동선들로 이루어져 있다. 그리고 여전히 남아 있는 것은 말줄임표와 같은 점들이다 •••

원은 종종 ‘자연이 가장 좋아하는 형태’라 불린다. 우리가 원을 이루는 순간은 대개 함께 모이기 위해서다. 이야기하기 위해, 다투기 위해, 혹은 누군가를 위로하기 위해. 어느 겨울날, 우리는 아홉 개의 불완전한 몸의 연장선이자 동반자인 테왁을 달걀 모양으로 만들어 보자며 모였다. 어쩌면, 그것은 우리가 함께 할 수 있는 전부였을지도 모른다.

An ellipsis is sometimes used to leave something unsaid—out of tension, care, or something that remains unresolved. An ellipse moves toward an almost perfect balance, yet a question lingers without a clear answer: why is it that an egg-shaped ellipse, slightly off and gently imperfect, feels more compelling?

This work began with things that could not be fully spoken. Its process did not follow a perfect circle, but unfolded through repeated attempts, hesitations, and routes that looped around, holding at certain points an unexpected turn—like the shape of an egg. And what still remains is this: marks like an ellipsis, dot dot dot

The circle is often called “nature’s favorite shape.” When we form a circle, it is usually to gather—to talk, to argue, or to comfort one another. On a winter day, we came together to make nine egg-shaped tewaks—extensions of the body, companions in form. Perhaps, it was all we could do.

Ellipses II, 2025
Multimedia installation
Dimensions variable

with
Ellipses II, 2025
Single-channel video

Breath Orchestra, Act 4, 2025
9-channel sound installation
(Performance-based, edited installation version)

Pause I–II, 2025
Lightbox
800x1200mm, 800x 600mm