Beacon's Jayoung Yoon weaves with hair

Jayoung Yoon wants to create larger works, but her hair only grows so long.

The artist, who lives in Beacon, specializes in sculpture and two-dimensional pieces created with her hair. During the pandemic, she studied the ancient art of Korean horsehair weaving on the island of Jeju-do and is now crafting intricate works that incorporate her hair, horsetails and, in a deft detail added to "The Fabric of Energy 03," two milkweed seeds suspended at the center of the piece's open ends.

For her residency at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan, which runs through February, she seeks hair donations to incorporate into a sculpture in her Fabric of Energy series. Visitors to her Saturday studio hours or people who contact her online will receive an index card to fill out and a prepaid envelope to mail in at least four to five strands no shorter than 3 inches.

Designed to hang at eye level, "The Fabric of Energy 03" is a stunning work of intricate weaving technique that consists of eight separate parts created by making wood molds with a lathe and then dunking the sculpted elements in boiling water for 30 minutes.

The pieces, a ball made from her hair, a funnel and what resembles a traditional Korean drum, interlock and are designed to shimmer in the sunlight.

Photos cannot do the works justice; they must be seen and experienced to be fully appreciated. The same goes for the Empty Void series, where she stretches her hair in four or five layers across a wood panel covered by canvas and uses a computer program to design shapes inspired by toruses and nature that seem to pop out of the frame, giving them a three-dimensional quality.

"The tension has to be perfect," she says. "Too tight and they break; too loose and it doesn't look right."

Most of the pieces are 8-by-8 inches. To get the longest length of hair possible, she has shaved her head seven times and created eight videos in which she is bald and naked.

For now, the 46-year-old artist's straight, jet-black mane dangles to her hips, but that state is impermanent, something she appreciates as a Buddhist: "I would love to work with gray hair. I look forward to that."

There is a conceptual element behind most of her work, some of it stemming from the burden of Korean history. The Japanese imprisoned her grandfather during World War II, and South Korean authorities arrested and monitored her mother during the 1970s for protesting the military dictatorship.

During Yoon's residency, she plans to complete four sculptures in the Fabric of Energy series. Of the 429 applicants for this cycle, the program chose six artists, and she will be in the studio greeting visitors on Saturdays through Feb. 20.

For a place once called the American Craft Museum, "handcrafting is still in our DNA, but we're trying to push the boundaries," says Lydia Brawner, its deputy director of education. "Many artists work with hair, but we've never collaborated with someone weaving horsehair or human hair with such precision, and we were wowed seeing it in person."

The Museum of Arts and Design, at 2 Columbus Circle in New York City, is open daily except Monday. Yoon's studio hours are 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission to the museum is $20 ($16 seniors, $14 students, free for 12 and younger). See madmuseum.org/learn/jayoung-yoon and @jayoungart