Brizhette Sunyoung Jung

Multi-Media Artist ~ Artist-in-Residence ~ August 4-24, 2024

Brizhette (Sun) Sunyoung Jung is a New York-based artist originally from Central Pennsylvania. Sun highlights a unique experience and perspective through her work, exploring topics of race culture against the backdrop of the Pennsylvania countryside. Being half Korean and half American, Sunyoung embodies the intersection of two cultures, feeling neither entirely one nor the other. Existing as the seam, the thread that binds these two identities, there is a perpetual search for a place of true belonging, a sense found only in the art she creates.

These visual representations stem from a deep sense of loneliness—a yearning to run and find a place to stop, breathe, and feel at home. Each drawing encapsulates this emotion, serving as blueprints for installations and videos, or sometimes standing alone as complete works. The primary mediums are pen and pencil, later digitized using various tools and media.

For her Colerain residency, Sun wants her art to create a new perspective on Pennsylvania. It’s a space that's dynamic and changing, and the people who live here are the same. She believes that our homes and our community spaces, like libraries and museums, should be as dynamic as we are; that is, changing all the time. She is personally installing the projectors and producing all of the audio and music heard in the gallery space, deciding how the projections interact with the setting of Colerain. Her art asks people who are already familiar with this environment to re-examine themselves and let go of the rigid idea of where they live, showing them ways to find that things can be different, new, and exciting. That newness and dynamism should tap into and bring the local community together in a sense of belonging.

Sun has completed three years of the BFA in Design and Technology at Parsons School of Design. She has taught high school art and portfolio development for over three years and has a private tutoring practice.

Instagram: @zhette02

Sun Discusses What Inspires Her Art

A Sense of Unbelonging

I want to create art that speaks to the universal human experience of searching for belonging.

I tend to focus on themes of being mismatched to your environment, drawing on my experience growing up Mormon, homeschooled, queer, and biracial. I've interacted with so many communities to which I don’t belong:

a majority-white conservative church
a circle of affluent college students
a predominantly Black workplace
a university that enrolls primarily middle class, upper-middle class, and rich students

From those experiences of unbelonging, I've drawn anger that I hold within me, but I've also discovered a certain tolerance.

For example, I know what to expect when I enter a space where queerness is the other, and I know how to show kindness and empathy for people who aren't accepting of it. I can find myself in a place that doesn't accept my queerness and still exist as my queer self. Certainly not everyone has the responsibility to show that tolerance, but because I know I’m capable of it, it’s where I believe I can create change.

I like the liberation of moving freely and finding catharsis in physical activity, but many women struggle with finding this freedom. The culture of body policing instills a fear of how others may judge you. There’s a sense of alienation, of unbelonging, further developed by the assumption that girls don’t know anything about sports, or the idea that you have to excel at something physical before you can be part of it.

I believe that the only way we can be liberated as women is just being women; we don’t have to be a girlboss, we don’t need to prove girlpower. Women just being human is something we don’t see represented enough. It’s the same with queerness; we’re always asking queer people to prove something, and we rarely see them represented as people. I want my art to draw attention to and combat these feelings of unbelonging because you don't match some ideal.

Understanding yourself is a prerequisite for understanding the world. I believe that navigating the external world necessitates delving into the internal. If you don't belong in this world, then a new one must be created. My art is a personal endeavor, extending a hand to those who have experienced similar feelings of loneliness and displacement. It's not for everyone, but seeks to connect with those who resonate with these emotions.