Vital Remains

Le Cyclop de Jean Tinguely, Milly-la-forêt, France, 2025

Yoo’s installation exhibited alongside Jean Tinguely’s 1969 monumental 𝘓𝘦 𝘊𝘺𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘱 sculpture. During Yoo’s artist residency this past spring at the Le Cyclop Association, she collaborated with the Verrerie d’art of Soisy-sur-École to create sculptures incorporating hand-blown glass. Her installation fuses charred wood with molten glass, transforming the mold itself into an integral part of the artwork. In these, macerations of medicinal herbs, which the artist keeps secret, rise in a swirling plume of smoke whenever one gets close.

Vital Remains has machinery parts that release incense in response to the vibrations of a seismograph sensor. Through the delay and interruption of smoke and scent, it expands time, creating a meditative sense of immersive extension inside of glass. The performance of delay, interruption, filling, and immersion is manifested through the smoke. The machine exhales in response, producing a breath that becomes rougher, as if malfunctioning, breathing in sync with the audience.

The work prompts a reflection on ecological assemblages, and the interdependence of all entities involved in the essential oil-making process, while also in Donna Haraway’s words: “ We are compost, not posthuman; we inhabit the humanities, not humanities.”

Raw matter and residue. A balance of vitality given and taken. 
Herbs absorb the earth’s energy, then return it to us through scent.
The dead tree, cast in glass, holds this trinity. 
Each vessel—some with oil, some with soil, some only tree—releases scent as intra-action of themselves.

A breath, a presence, a trace.

𝘝𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴, 2025
Blown glass, found tree trunk, local made oregano and peppermint oil, dried peppermint, glycerin, propylene glycol, heated wire, cloth, steel, dimensions variable

VITAL REMAINS

SELF LOVE CLUB

SEVERANCEIMMORTELLE DIVINEINJECTION MACHINE: Tu m'THE ORIENTAL SAUCE FACTORYTHE BIRTH OF VENUSSHEPEEMAINTAIN DISGUST UNDER CONSTRUCTIONGUTTIN’N OUT

CV VIMEO

HAENA YOO

SEVERANCE
IMMORTELLE DIVINE
INJECTION MACHINE: Tu m'
THE ORIENTAL SAUCE FACTORY
THE BIRTH OF VENUS
SHEPEE
MAINTAIN DISGUST

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
GUTTIN’N OUT

CV
VIMEO