Anicka Yi

Yi cites writing as a primary element of her practice. In an interview with Ross Simonini, she explained, "Writing is one of my primary tools. I often discover my thoughts about the work through writing. Syntax, sentence structure . . . these things really help. I write a lot of backstory for my sculptures, as if they’re characters in a novel or screenplay. I share this writing with friends, but no one else sees it. I’m not really a visual person. I don’t think in images. I don’t sketch things. I don’t use visual references as much as I should. It’s a huge handicap for me. My writing doesn’t capture the idea for the work as a sketch would. So maybe I’m not working in the most productive way. My starting point is verbal."

She has also described her process as similar but an inverted version of the scientific process as employed in science labs. "Scientists have their hypothesis and then spend the next 20 or 30 years of their career trying to prove it, whereas artists won’t really understand what their hypothesis was until the end of their career."

Yi is known for her use of unorthodox, often living and perishable materials, including: tempura-fried flowers, canvases fashioned from soap, stainless-steel shower heads, fish oil pills, shredded Teva sandals boiled in recalled powdered milk, and bacteria. David Everitt Howe in Art Review wrote in 2018 that this "incongruous mix of media" is “arranged into something elegantly allegorical about the various industries that constitute our identity."

Her piece included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial was a 22-minute 3D video titled The Flavor Genome that followed a chemist searching through the Brazilian Amazon for a special plant. In the story, this plant is thought to have medicinal properties, so it is appealing to the pharmaceutical industry. The film considers themes ranging from bioengineering to imperialism.

2017 Whitney Biennial, 12th Biennale de Lyon, Studiolo, Zurich, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art (Basel), White Flag Projects, St. Louis, Sculpture Center, New York, White Columns, New York, West Street Gallery

Yi was the winner of the biannual 2016 Hugo Boss Prize presented by the Guggenheim. In 2017, Yi debuted at the Guggenheim with the exhibition Life Is Cheap, which explores her "sociopolitical interest in the olfactive."

In her 2015 show at The Kitchen in New York City, You Can Call Me F, Yi took swabs from 100 women and with the help of MIT synthetic biologist Tal Danino cultivated the bacteria in an agar billboard that “assaults visitors” to help answer the question “What does feminism smell like?" Each woman was given the choice to where she would take a swab from her body, which ranged from the mouth to the vagina. She and Danino developed this work through "The Art and Science of Bacteria" a workshop they led during her residency at MIT. She described that she wanted this work to explore the "patriarchal fear" surrounding hygiene and the female body. In the exhibition, Yi aimed to represent women's body in the form of smells rather than sights, denouncing what New Yorker writer Andrea K. Scott writes as "salacious male expectations".

Critic Jane Yong Kim wrote about her 2015 show at The Kitchen, which included a piece displaying the organic matter from cheek swabs taken from over hundred women. Kim explains that these bacteria represent how women's bodies can pose threats from the potential for such bacteria to cause infections.

Yi often manipulates these unconventional materials, sometimes completely transforming them, as in the case of kombucha she fermented into leather-like material. For a work titled verbatem? verbatom? 4 created in 2014 for her exhibit "Divorce" at 47 Canal, she injected live snails with oxytocin.

After she graduated from Hunter College, she lived in London, where she freelanced for several years doing work as a fashion stylist and copywriter. It was at the age of 30 that she began to experiment with art as she explored her interests in perfumery and science. Her first artworks were produced in 2008 when she was a member of Circular File, an art collective, along with Josh Kline and Jon Santos.

Anicka Yi (born 1971 in Seoul, South Korea) is a conceptual artist whose work lies at the intersection of fragrance, cuisine, and science. She is known for installations that engage the senses, especially the sense of smell, and for her collaborations with biologists and chemists. Yi lives and works in New York City, and is represented by 47 Canal.