Dukno Yoon
Dukno Yoon
Dukno Yoon

Dukno Yoon is an artist who explores movement through simple mechanical structures in jewelry pieces and sculpture. Through the use of metalsmithing, he is able to create pieces that mimic realistic wing movements of birds when the wearer flexes and curls their finger or wrist. 

“Intrigued by machines and their movements, mechanical structure has become the most crucial formal language throughout my body of work. Mechanical structure as a form fascinates me in two aspects. First, structural form can achieve complexity yet simplicity at once because of the ingrained logic behind it. Additionally, mechanical forms involve movement that is not random, but rather is designed or devised, and thus can be interactive. Working in particular with mechanical movements that interact with and involve viewers allows me to give vitality to objects. My wearable/kinetic works are intended to exist between jewelry and sculpture. They stand independently while their close connection to the body creates an intimate relationship with the viewer.” – Dukno Yoon, Artist Statement (https://art.ksu.edu/people/faculty/yoon.html)

While Yoon’s work doesn’t involve any conductive or telematic elements, I find his work fascinating because of the complex movements he is able to achieve through the use of bare mechanical structures. In some of his pieces the combination of smooth and streamlined wire sculpture with the organic and soft quality of feathers adds an artistic component of manmade versus natural materials. To me, Yoon’s work is somewhat reminiscent of the mythology behind Icarus’ wings created by Daedalus, who was an inventor and craftsman from ancient Greece. 

I appreciate how the wearer must interact with the piece in order for jewelry to “come to life”, and how the organic movement of moving one’s finger or wrist translates from the wire structure into natural flow of the feathers. Yoon’s work takes place in this small scale and wearable form, but I imagine the basic mechanical components could be replicated on a larger scale. I feel that by making the wings larger, however, one would have to add a mechanical component in order to power the movement behind the size and weight of the wings.