Fiber artist Cho Youngmi draws using thread. Specifically, she visualizes the desired form by tearing thin, long threads from dyed thread clusters and then connecting them together. Her hands act like pencils, outlining shapes, while the threads become the paint, expressing color onto the forms. Although Cho Youngmi is a fiber artist, her recent completed works resemble abstract art with geometric forms.

"I don't want to leave any special interpretations because it's an emotionally personal story suitable for a diary." Rather than explaining each piece, Cho Youngmi hopes her emotions conveyed through her works will naturally reach the viewers. The forms she creates by attaching threads resemble multiple squares placed on a background square. Filled squares, unfilled squares, rounded corners, or squares tilted to one side come together to showcase sculptural beauty. "Although it may seem like visualizing squares, it's actually a process of breaking free from squares." For Cho Youngmi, squares symbolize deeply ingrained ideologies and conventions to be surpassed. "I've set my own limits from some point. It's strange because there's no visible entity. It's like I unknowingly erected an insurmountable barrier. I want to leap over that barrier. I thought of that invisible barrier as a square." This explains why the squares in Cho Youngmi's works don't exist as perfect squares.

For Cho Youngmi, fiber symbolizes warmth. "My toy in childhood was a spool. I always carried the thread from it as if playing. I especially liked the softness I felt when touching fabric. Just like friends fondle cherished dolls, I felt my parents' warmth while touching fabric." Cho Youngmi's memories of thread and fabric naturally became tools for expressing herself. After studying fiber crafts at Hongik University and graduate school, she delved into pure art activities, such as tapestry weaving and dyeing, but she realized that the tapestry weaving method was limiting her potential. "As the work became ingrained in my body, I could visualize it from sketches to completion. I didn't like that. Although the results from perfect weaving were good, I wished the work itself could evoke various emotions like experiences in different situations."

Cho Youngmi temporarily suspended tapestry work and created scarves emphasizing the utility of crafts. However, she didn't repeat conventional methods. Instead, she introduced a unique technique called 'Nuno felt' to create scarves resembling sculptures. The 'Nuno felt' technique involves laying wool on silk, sprinkling with soap, and then rolling by hand under pressure for a long time, resulting in irregular felting on the silk, creating unique textures or shapes. "The 'Nuno felt' technique adds randomness compared to tapestry work. It might sound funny to express it like this, but I attempted to create scarves with free forms and compositions. Scarves with rough wool and soft silk melded together looked great as products, but they also seemed like unique sculptures. I showcased unique scarves to the public and tourists in Insa-dong for 10 years and received overwhelming responses. But then, I felt overwhelmed by too many orders, so I wanted to stop making scarves. At that moment, I decided to become a pure fiber artist who expresses emotions purely through fibers. That's what I prepared for the exhibition <UNBOUND HARMONY> at the Gallery MOSOON."

Fiber works displayed on walls like paintings have reflections of the opposite side seen through the fine gaps. "My work embraces both independent existence and the surrounding space. Rather than dividing the boundary between space and artwork, I seek harmony between them." Cho Youngmi's fiber works also contain her efforts to break free from conventions. "I wanted to create a feeling like drawing on traditional Korean paper. I also wanted to draw familiar landscapes like fields and rice paddies. I wanted to freely express comforting spaces. But I'm a person who deals with fiber. So, I can only draw using dyed thread instead of pencils and brushes. Since I don't use pencils and brushes, I don't even sketch. I just repeat selecting threads as my heart desires until the desired form emerges. I often worked with red threads. My parents passed away one after another at that time. Maybe because of the shock and sadness, whenever I went to the workshop, I kept picking up only red threads. Perhaps I wanted to gain intense strength."

Cho Youngmi's work, although it seems like a task anyone can easily do with familiar threads, is a result of understanding the unique characteristics and sensibilities of each thread and accumulated experiences. Since studying fiber crafts at university in 1981, or even since childhood, thread has always brought comfort to her. Therefore, she was able to discover a way to fully express her emotions through threads by transcending from craft techniques. The <UNBOUND HARMONY> exhibition is a culmination of the unique perspectives of a liberated artist. Cho Youngmi has broken through the limitations of a fiber artist and this has become a catalyst for creating distinctive works.