Juicy Holiday
5th IYAC Global Youth Art Competition, 2025 · awarded, and exhibited in Insadong, Seoul
Juicy Holiday was my entry to the 5th IYAC Global Youth Art Competition in 2025. It received an award, and the work was exhibited in Insadong in Seoul.
The competition theme was harmony in diversity, and it is a harder brief than it sounds.
The brief, and why it is difficult
IYAC’s theme celebrated the beauty of the harmony that shows up inside difference, and the strength and richness you gain by taking in other perspectives, cultures and identities. In a world full of different voices and ideas, it asked young artists to work out how harmony can be reached while individual difference is still acknowledged and respected — abstractly or as a story — and to make work that builds a more inclusive future through cooperation and understanding.
The easy version of that brief is a painting where everyone is holding hands. The reason it is the easy version is that it resolves the difference away. Harmony that has stopped containing difference is not harmony; it is agreement, which is a much smaller thing and not what the theme asked for.
Where I went with it
What I wanted was the moment before agreement — things that plainly do not match, held in one frame, and the frame still working. Difference that stays visible. If a viewer can name what does not belong and also feel that the picture holds together, then the theme has been answered rather than avoided.
Being exhibited in Insadong mattered more than the award did. The award is a line on a page. The exhibition meant watching people stop in front of the work for a while, and standing near enough to hear what they said about it to each other.
The finished work will replace the placeholder above.