BE—ING—LY

AUSTYN TAYLOR • FRAGILE
2022.10.7 - 10.29

Being is happiness.
Being: Becoming a fountain,
a fountain on which the universe falls like warm rain.

from Milan Kundera(1929~) [Immortality](1990)

Austyn Taylor's sculptures are a mixture of cultures from different places and times. In early works, icons of ancient culture and modern times were expressed in a direct eclectic form, and in recent works, elements of multiculturalism meet in subtle and meticulous manner. Her works are an amalgamation of ancient and modern art images, folk art and pop art, character animation and hand-made sculptures, evoking subtle humor. Although often not harmonious, it symbolically shows the fact that 'everything exists as a collection of multiple things'. Realism and optimism coexist as important values in her sculptures.

Austyn Taylor studied art and philosophy at university. Since 2016, she has been working with artists from various countries while staying in art residency in various cultures such as the United States, Denmark, and China.


Artist Fragile's "fragile creatures" series contains the common theme of 'the fragility of life'. Fragile means 'delicate' or 'easy to hurt'. As the name suggests, they are described as beings that need to be handled with great care both physically and emotionally. And the artist uses ‘balloon’s as an appropriate way to embody these concepts.

The balloon is supported by a thin membrane filled with air. It is fragile and precarious because it is easy to be harmed by even the slightest stimuli and exists in an unstable balance. The instability of life expressed through balloons contains symbols and metaphors for the real world we experience. In addition, balloons are a product of mass consumption society and are mainly used to decorate colorful festivals. The artist expresses various messages such as the futility and fragility of life and the ambivalence of consumer society through the multiple meanings of the material of balloons and cute icon of pop art style since the 1980s. Recently, the artist is expanding her work area by showing not only painting but also three-dimensional new works using glass and wood.


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