Lot 117: YOON JEONGMEE (Korean, B. 1969)

YOON JEONGMEE (Korean, B. 1969) The Blue Project - Seyoon and His Blue Things signed 'JeongMee Yoon' (on a label) light jet print 50.8 x 50.8 cm. (20 x 20 in.) edition 1/10 Executed in 2007

50.8 x 50.8 cm.

Geonhi Art Foundation, The Pink & Blue Project, Seoul, Korea, 2007 (illustrated, unpaginated). Art Collection + Design Magazine, March 2010 (illustrated, cover).

In the contemporary art world, Yoon Jeong Mee occupies an important place. Being inspired by her five year-old daughter, who was completely obsessed with pink clothing and toys, Yoon realized her daughter became part of international gender-specific marketing campaigns. She then started to work on "The Pink and Blue Project" by photographing children with their collection of toys and clothing in different countries. Unexpectedly, kids from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds are drawn to the same color scheme, that is, blues for boys and pinks for girls. Through her powerful visual language, Yoon successfully leads us to explore the contrast in the preferences of children and the issue of gender socialization under the great influence by commercialization and popular culture. Her photo book, "The Pink & Blue Project" published in 2007, was selected as one of the Best Photo Books of the Year by American PHOTO magazine. Yoon also won the International Photography Awards (IPA), Honorable Mention, in 2006. "The Pink and Blue Project" was exhibited in Spain and South Korea in 2008 and 2007 respectively. -- The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) annually organises the most established contemporary art prize in Asia. SAF's aim is twofold: to help elevate the profiles of mid-career artists across the region, and to raise money for disadvantaged children, using the arts as rehabilitation, education and therapy. For the first time, The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) and Christie's have collaborated in auction to raise much-needed funds for SAF's Make it Better (MIB) project; an initiative that provides art workshops to disadvantaged children in Hong Kong. Until now, the MIB project has largely focused on providing weekly workshops to the Society for Community Organization (SoCo) and the Hong Kong Society for Protection of Children (HKSPC), however this year SAF aims to greatly expand the project and hire full time art therapists and teachers to work with the children. To facilitate this expansion, Christie's has generously offered SAF the platform through which to raise funds and ultimately support the programme. In this collaboration, selected Sovereign Asian Art Prize finalists and winners have very generously donated artworks to a meaningful March auction at Christie's, with proceeds feeding directly back to The Sovereign Art Foundation's Make It Better project. The selection of contemporary works being auctioned ranges from unique sculptures, to digital prints, to a knitted shredded body container crafted from an authentic collection of Tin Tin Comic Books. Artists including Movana Chen, Debbie Han, Dongi Lee, Man Fung-Yi, MAP Office and JeongMee Yoon have contributed to the project, further cementing their relationship with The Sovereign Art Foundation and aiding its many charitable art projects across the region.