Seoul, b. 1996

Yun Taein’s practice can be understood as an exploration of how soft and fluid materiality shifts into the language of structure and form. Taking materials such as clay and sponge—substances that respond sensitively to external pressure and contact—as her point of departure, the artist attends closely to the moments in which the movement of the hand, the resistance of the material, and the incidental traces produced in the making process become layered and accumulated. Impressions, curves, smudges, and tears left on the surface are not treated merely as by-products of process, but as formative clues that anticipate the structure of the work to come. In particular, organic forms that emerge in a pliable state are later transferred into materials of opposing character through processes such as metal casting or wood carving, allowing the traces of softness to become newly embedded within hard and solid matter. In this way, Yoon Taein’s work delicately reveals the moment in which one materiality is translated into another, traversing sensation and structure, pliancy and solidity, accident and construction. While her furniture and objects reference functional forms, they do not remain confined to the realm of utility; instead, holding within them the residue of sensation and the memory of material, they invite reflection on the sculptural potential inherent in softness.