Light after the screen
bonae yi
Glasgow School of Art
My practice began with a question arising from more than two decades of experience in the digital display industry: what happens when the sensory characteristics of the screen — vivid colour, gloss, luminosity, and smoothness — are translated into physical material? I initially explored these qualities through vinyl, drawn to its ability to retain the visual qualities of the screen while existing as a transparent yet solid material. Through cutting, staining, stitching, and accumulation, I introduced texture, irregularity, and traces of touch into images originally designed to appear immediate and seamless. Building on this approach, my practice is expanding to explore how screen-like qualities can coexist with a heightened sense of materiality. I continue to develop transparent, solid surfaces that recall the screen while experimenting with materials and processes that introduce texture, thickness, and the passage of time. Subtle changes in light — scattering, reflection, and transmission — become ways for the work to reveal what an image cannot: touch, residue, change, and time.