About

The invisible lines we use to categorize and separate — drawn so often from a fear of the unfamiliar — compress human existence into hierarchies and competition. Yu is drawn precisely to those who fall into the fissures: the vulnerable, the overlooked, the ones history has framed without their consent. A vintage photograph of a young girl became the catalyst for her practice, prompting her to ask what it means to look at another person not with detachment, but with genuine empathy.

Her process is as philosophical as it is physical. Rather than sketching in advance, she pours graphite and charcoal mixed with water directly onto Arches paper — surrendering control to the fluid movement of particles with different densities. The result is organic, irreversible, and deeply intentional. For Yu, this "irreversibility" is not a limitation but a truth: our past experiences remain etched within us, and on the paper, artist and medium breathe together as equals.

In her ongoing series In Breath, Yu reaches across time toward her subjects — acknowledging the distance, but insisting on connection. Through the shimmering flow of graphite, the boundaries between past and present, observer and observed, self and other begin to dissolve. What remains is something quieter and more essential: a shared breath, and the resilient, delicate fact of being alive.