Seo Young Deok

Works
Biography

"We are interlocked and running like parts of a giant machine. Just like its components, we hang in there day after day as a gray man living in the periphery. And we are not allowed to be a protagonist of our own very life. The chains in my work are fetters. The fetters are all about our contemporaries' complicated, forced relationships and cravings for materials. I want to show, through my works, the portraits of our time where personal thoughts and lives are ignored. We are shutting our eyes, ears, and mouth and suppressing our feelings. We are doing this convinced that there is no place where we can express our feelings and take comfort.

 

To those who are enduring in silence... I hope my works can console you, even if a small amount." - Seo Young-Deok 

 
Internationally renowned sculptor Seo Young-Deok was born in 1983, in South Korea. He graduated from the environmental sculpture department of the University of Seoul in 2008, and continues to live and work in South Korea.

Exploring the relationship between humans and their environment, Seo Young-Deok is best known for his hyper-realistic, life-size sculptures of human figures fashioned exclusively from welded chains taken from industrial machinery and bicycles. The shapes the artist creates with this cold and dark material, whether it be a human's face with closed eyes, or a body surfacing from the background, is imbued with an emotion which is both strong and peaceful. The final uneven aspect of the outside shell of the sculptures recalls the emergence of cells being duplicated, a DNA chain intentionally left unfinished or even the complexity of modern societies.

Seo Young-Deok exhibits Internationally in Paris, Venice, Seoul, London, Dublin & Geneva. His work is included in major collections worldwide including the DSB s.r.l. group, Italy; the Sungkok Art Museum, South Korea; the Gallery Hyundai, South Korea ; the E·LAND Foundation for the Arts & Culture, South Korea; the Seongnam Arts Center, South Korea; the Daekyo Culture Foundation, South Korea.
Exhibitions