Congratulations to Diana Noh for earning her place as a winner in the Boynes Monthly Art Award January 2023!

Who are you?

I am Diana Noh, an interdisciplinary artist who works with photography, fiber and installation. I was born in Oregon, went back to Korea as my family moved when I was 10. I was a kid that loved arts, P.E. and music. I chose to walk the path as a photographer from my mom’s suggestion. As I studied photography, I fell more and more in love with the medium and wanted to expand my mediums tapping into another art field. I was also longing to come back to the states, since I had a rough time adjusting to Korea’s culture so it was a perfect chance for me to pursue my MFA program in the US to start my career as an emerging artist.

What inspired you to utilize photography as well as fiber as a medium?

When I pursued my MFA in Cranbrook, unlike my undergrad, Cranbrook required me to have a physical piece every time I had a critique. I relish following the flow of my work. As I use intuition as the heart of my process, deciding to sew my piece also happened spontaneously. As I was adjusting in Korea, due to the cultural difference I did not have friends for quite a while. So during that time, I made teddy bears, quilted, and sewed to ease my stress and take my mind off of the feelings that were fleeting inside me. Since my practice is a self-recovery practice, I believe these personal attachment of the sewing process encouraged my subconscious to intertwine sewing to my body of work. Also, I have to say I am a big fashion follower, so I always had an interest in fabrics which break down to the combination of entangled fibers.

How would you describe your work?

My work is a space I constructed for my feelings and emotions so I can be selfish. It is a space that people can see through my lens and get a peek into how my safe haven looks like. I sneak a lot of details into my work, which is why I prefer making it a decent size. In the distance, they look intact but the more you get closer they start to break down. I consider my work as my personas as well, the more you get to know me, you can read more details in my work. But I don’t think my work is only tied to my personal story. My goal is to make my work function as a mirror. My works do contain personal codes that I will only notice, but at the same time, my audience can also find their own stories in my work. At the end of the day, we are all human beings. We all have daily struggles, we all have complicated familial relationships.

Can you discuss the inspiration and thought process behind your winning work?

For this piece, ‘reflexion’, I took this photograph in Jeju island which is one of my favorite islands in Korea. I get a lot of inspiration walking randomly in the forests, woodsy areas, and mostly any type of water forms. Maybe it is because I was born in Eugene where the sea was so close, I feel so much comfort when I hear water flowing. Also, I recently started revisiting the photographs I took in my undergrad to manipulate them physically. Physical manipulation is a process I started in my grad school and it gives a totally different atmosphere as remaining a straight photograph versus a reconstructed photograph. Since ‘reflexion’ was one of the pieces I photographed when I was really emotionally unstable, I especially wanted to experiment with this piece, I wanted to recreate this piece to expand my work of body not only engaged in architecture but also in landscapes.

Can you walk us through the technical steps of creating your winning work?

Thinking back, I think I always get so lucky with certain incidents. One day I bought a paper on eBay to print my work and when I received it, I realized that I bought the wrong paper which was a canvas paper. I love taking chances in my work so I thought it would hurt to give it a shot(not to say I was lazy to return it). And I realized that canvas paper is more forgiving when I stitch them and it is more easy to ship and store as I can gently roll them. So I am always grateful about how everything works out for me eventually. When I was deciding the stitch lines, I tried to mimic the waterfall’s stream flowing down as I decided to use the thread color from the leaves around the waterfall. I used a canvas paper that has a metal sheen which allows the light to travel differently within the frame and add a three dimensional glimpse to the work. It was also the second piece I created with a machine stitching. Before this ‘reflexion’ and ‘tideless’; that is my first machine stitching piece, I strictly used hand sewing to my work. As I expanded my practice, I wanted to also incorporate a sewing machine to speed up my process. But little did I know, actually using the sewing machine also took a fair amount of time for me to stitch my pieces since I did not have an experience using a sewing machine and making massive works made it hard to feed my work into my sewing machine. I invite chances into my work so I do not worry if I accidentally make a wrong hole or if I sew the line too long. Actually even for this piece, the first part on the right wasn’t what I had drawn in my mind which is a fun fact. But I decided to embrace my mistakes and consider that my piece wanted to have that appearance and drove me to make that stroke.

What do you hope to communicate to an audience with your work?

Being ambitious, I want everyone; regardless of their sex, race, nationality, and skin color to embrace my work and emote any form of emotion. Even though my work is specific to my own experience, I believe art overcomes these limits. I hope everyone who takes in my work knows it is okay to be imperfect, and it is okay to just be yourself. I wish to give courage to everyone who is viewing my work to process their emotions instead of holding them back and burying them and to take in those emotions in their purest form. And eventually, I hope my work can provide them comfort at the end of the day.

Can you talk about your biggest learning experience during the process of creating your work?

I am not sure if it is from my experience in Korea, but I always thought art is a sacred field that is holy and needs to be perfect. But as you can see, my work is not even close to perfect. I embrace chance and accidents into my work which results in imperfection. When I just started to physically present my pieces, I was trying hard to present my work to seem ‘professional’ at all times. I was taught that not framing your work is considered unfinished, and you need to hide the hanging parts. Even when I apply for certain applications I often see it is mandatory to not show the hardware that is holding the piece. As I made more and more pieces, I finally allowed myself to feel comfortable at showing the hanging process. Mainly I use a grommet to hold my piece that is hidden in the back. I tried various methods to hide it such as gluing, fusing etc, but now, depending on the piece, I am not afraid to show the sewing strokes I put in to fix the grommet. As some designer brands make their signature to show the imperfection; which can be a stitch mark, I also now consider these stitch marks in my piece as part of my piece. I learned that imperfection is also art.

Have you experimented with other mediums?

Yes, actually I have interest in metal, ceramic and obviously fiber. My first piece I made this year, ‘Adrift’ is a piece I incorporated ceramic. While I was doing my residency in PenArts, I experimented with using ceramic frames to finish up my work. And while I was making my commission piece during my 2022 summer, I added some copper strips into my piece that I had textured. It was a really fun experience! Personally I hesitate a lot when I tap into other mediums since I have a solid background in photography. I worry if I will come across ignorant or offensive, not having the proper knowledge and knowing the deep philosophy behind the medium. But as I also believe that the beginners are able to see the most creative and crazy thoughts through their innocent lens, I try to encourage myself to not fear to explore different mediums.

Can you discuss your biggest success since starting your artistic journey?

I will say I am proud of all the little steps I made since I graduated in May 2022. I consider these mini steps all as a success. I am thankful that I was able to show my work in group shows, being awarded residencies, and also this Boynes Monthly Award! I am a perfectionist which is weird since my work looks so sloppy, but I plan them thoroughly and every stroke matters. I try to celebrate every success I make even if it is big or small and try to use that as a motivation to drive me further to pursue my career more aggressively.

Can you tell something you wish you had known before or when you began your career that would have really helped?

I wish I had someone who taught me about the unconventional photography hanging methods. I am an artist who doesn’t frame my work often. I started to explore using found frames for some of my landscape pieces, but I don’t often frame my architectural pieces. Since I did not have enough experience of making a physical work before I started my MFA program, I struggled to figure out a way to hang and seal my piece. I had a lot of fun playing around with various hardwares to hang my piece, but I always think about how helpful and relieved I would have felt if I had someone who could have given me this advice.

What projects are you working on currently?

I am usually all over the place so I like to work on multiple pieces at once before I start my physical alteration process. Currently, I have a solo exhibition that is coming up on November 11-18 in Detroit. It is going to be on view in Talking Dolls where I have done my first residency. I am planning to show works that I photographed in Detroit, on top of one piece I photographed back when I was in Korea. So it will be more reconstructed pieces of abandoned spaces. This is a sneak peek for the straight image I made via Photoshop(view yet untitled.jpg) and as I print it, I will start my physical alteration process that you can check out later when my show is going on!

What is your dream project or piece you hope to accomplish?

My dream is to eventually buy an old building and give a new life to it as my studio and community art event space. As you can tell from seeing my work, I resonate with old buildings. I see myself in these neglected structures. It is enchanting how much history they carry and show as a scare if you walk into these hollow structures. If my financial status allows, I would love to own one of these historical abandoned buildings that no one wants, and give it another life to thrive. Just as I relocated my life and started to build a new layer of skin in my life.

As a winner, do you have any advice for artists who want to submit to awards, competitions, residencies, etc.?

I know this might sound boring but it is true, you need to apply as much as you can! I know it is a lot of money when you do not have another job and are trying to apply for even 10 applications. But I do believe, the more you apply you learn which type of call is more suitable for yourself and apply efficiently. Also, it is always more than helpful to keep an excel file that contains all the info of the works you made, so if you need to apply, you can just copy and paste.

Lastly, I like to ask everyone what advice they would give to their fellow artists/photographers, what is your advice?

Always don’t be afraid to experiment. I know it is scary to step out of your comfort zone, but it is worth it eventually. I try to experiment as much as I can and since I work really intuitively, I often accidentally create a piece that is really fun.

To view more of Diana Noh’s work

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