
Michael Joo, Mediator, 1998. Photo Anders Norrsell.
Michael Joo
Michael Joo
(Born 1966, works in New York)
Mediator, 1998
Aluminium, cobblestones, tempered glass
Diameter 250 cm, height 500 cm
Michael Joo participated in the exhibition WANÅS 1998 with the artwork Mediator, which resembles a sundial. Joo is trained as both a biologist and an artist. His works can be seen as meetings between natural and artificial, symmetry and asymmetry, between nature, science, and Joo’s artistic approach. He uses a wide variety of materials in his artworks, often sourced from nature, and works in areas ranging from performance and video to sculpture and painting. With Mediator, Joo creates a place that both points out a direction and brings attention to the sun’s energy. The pole is pointed east and thereby, for Joo, references his Korean heritage. The same year that Mediator was erected, he exhibited the large-scale installation Highway, which occupied an entire floor of the old Barn at Wanås. It consisted of an enormous tree that was cut down and then reconstructed using iron rods.


