Yaein Angelina Choi
You Don’t Even Know Me
Exterior: Handycoat, plaster bandage, urethane foam, wire, transparent acrylic, wood
Interior: Acrylic paint, filament (3D-print material), preserved reindeer moss (Scandia moss), spray paint, LED light, cotton (for cloud effect), fishing line, sand
In “You Don’t Even Know Me”, I wanted to reveal how we can never truly read another person’s mind—a truth we must stay aware of. I made the sculpture in the video appear unassuming at first glance: a smooth white dome hanging quietly from the ceiling. Yet inside, it hides an entire world. When viewers place their head within, they enter a miniature dreamscape of soft moss, tiny trees, mushrooms, and a castle glowing under light—all built from paint and various materials. The contrast between the plain exterior and the intricate interior mirrors the human mind.
We often seem empty on the outside while our inner worlds overflow with thoughts and emotion. The work invites viewers to step into another consciousness—to experience the wonder, chaos, and imagination that lie beneath the surface. “You Don’t Even Know Me” reminds us that appearances reveal only a fraction of who we truly are.
The vintage aesthetic of the video accompanies this dream-like ambience.
Emotional Topography
Graphite, charcoal, colored pencil on layered paper
I created Emotional Topography to extend the idea behind my piece My Layered Self. I cut and overlapped sheets of paper into a cross-shaped composition to create a unique dimension — an idea I had after playing around with a few sheets of paper. Then, using pencil and charcoal, I shaded each sheet to mimic a sort of rhythmic pattern. At the center of the piece, I drew a figure dissolving into a field of flowers, symbolizing how the human psyche continues to conceal its true self. The piece is fragmented which reflects how emotion shapes itself in nonlinear ways, intersecting and reforming over time. The floral motifs within the piece, symbolizes how our emotions grow stronger after facing vulnerability. Overall, this piece embodies the layered nature of our emotions and how we grow and renew ourselves.
My Layered Self
Sanded leather, silk organza, mesh, foam/ Hand-stitching, appliqué, sanding, heat texturing, 3D foam carving, layering
I created My Layered Self to express the layered nature of our emotions — how we hide our true emotions with a superficial layer. Throughout my adolescence, I’ve adapted an ability to hide my inner emotions with superficial emotions that I reveal to others. This piece explores how this layer can take a physical form. The inner bodysuit was sculpted from distressed leather that was heat textured, and hand stitched leather fragments, to create the charred bark-like surface that symbolizes pain and rigidity. The body suit, which covers the entire body hide, depicts how these raw emotions take over my existence. Over this, I built a hat made from foam, with silk organza and mesh layered atop it —representing a psychological layer that hides my true emotions. However the layer is translucent, symbolizing how my true emotions can never be completely hidden. Completed in March 2025, My Layered Self shows that emotions are layered, and true emotions are concealed.
My Self Portraits
This body of work explores the layered psychology of emotion, vulnerability, and self-perception. Across paintings such as Inner Space, My Second Skin, and Am I Being Watched?, I examine how inner emotions manifest through the body and material—how exposure, transformation, and judgment shape the identity we present to the world.
Each piece visualizes a stage of emotional evolution: the quiet acceptance of vulnerability, the metamorphosis that follows self-renewal, and the tension of being seen. Through varied media—from oil and nylon to symbolic imagery—I translate psychological states into tactile form, revealing that emotion itself can become a material language.
Ultimately, this series suggests that self-awareness is not static but a continuous dialogue between protection and exposure, solitude and observation, fear and resilience.
A Soft Armor
Faux fur, neoprene, silk chiffon/ Hand-stitching, padding, layering
After leading art therapy sessions with elderly residents at a senior center, I realized how resilience can exist within being vulnerable. The vulnerability that I had witnessed within the residents through their openness was contrasted by their perseverance that radiated a sense of warmth. This experience inspired Soft Armor, a piece that redefines emotional protection as something soft — how empathy can act as an emotional shield. I constructed the torso of the piece using cotton-filled fabrics, each hand-stitched together to form a soft and strong structure that hugs the body. Materials such as faux fur and neoprene is used to comfort the wearer, whilst a silk chiffon drape is attached to the skirt. The garment, altogether, creates a soft piece that comforts the wearer, much like how honesty and empathy can protect oneself. Completed in January 2025, Soft Armor replaces the coldness of emotional protection with a sense of warmth, showing how empath can be the most powerful form of protection.
The Weight of Joy
I created The Weight of Joy, a piece that depicts the heaviness of happiness —the way in which joy is burdensome. I created the piece by layering and foam padding underneath the fabric to create the voluminous silhouette. Then, I hand-rolled pieces of fabric to create a spiral for the protruding chest pieces, to put emphasis at the core of the piece. In addition, the big collar which was achieved by putting wire between the fabrics, creates tension. The structure of the piece, overall, is heavy and dramatic, limiting the wearer from movement. I layered bright colors of pink, orange, blue, and violet using liquid fabric stains that are like watercolors that symbolize how emotions blend and overlap. Completed in July 2025, The Weight of Joy depicts the paradox of joy—showing how happiness carries its own burden.
Series Statement
This series explores how emotion, identity, and cognition are materially intertwined—how inner experiences can be seen, touched, and reconstructed through art.
In Pieces of Me, the fragmented self-portrait expresses identity as an evolving puzzle of emotions and memories. The Gravity of Blooming translates emotional weight into structure and color, showing how joy and pressure coexist within the same space. The Thinking Fabric bridges neuroscience and materiality, transforming the brain into a tactile landscape where thought becomes texture.
Across these works, I use textiles, paint, and layered composition to visualize the invisible processes that shape who we are. Each piece reveals that emotion and thought are not abstract, but tangible materials—woven, constructed, and constantly renewed through introspection and creation.
FASHION
Cybernetic Skin
I created A Cybernetic Skin for the 10th High School Fashion Contest with Lie Sang Bong under the theme “AI and the Garment of 2050.” I’ve imagined a future where artificial intelligence can monitor human emotions, and I wanted to design a garment that acts as a protection for our emotions—preserving humanity’s dignity in a technological world. I draped leather on a mannequin to form a corset-shaped structure, depicting how emotions are skintight and unique. Using a 3D pen, I draw a heart and vein-like forms, which I then attached to the garment and shoes as embellishments, symbolizing emotions that persist throughout the human body. The leather ruffles and curved seams creates dimension to the garment that mirrors emotional rhythm. The PVC coat acts as a semi-transparent protective layer that protects yet reveals emotions, allowing AI to observe but not decode emotions. Completed in July 2025, A Cybernetic Skin is a piece that uses fashion as a protection against technology.
Series Statement
This series explores the fragile boundaries between reality, emotion, and imagination—how the mind reacts when it feels trapped, disconnected, or in search of release.
In Get Me Out of Here, emotion becomes cyclical and suffocating, its echoing folds of fabric capturing the rhythm of an inescapable loop. My Mind Just Left the Room visualizes the moment of mental detachment, when stress fractures perception and transforms familiar spaces into surreal distortions. In My Dream offers an antidote—a quiet refuge where the subconscious dissolves tension through color and fluid form.
Across the series, I use painting, fabric, and layered surfaces to translate inner states into tangible environments. Each piece turns emotion into space, showing how the mind continuously builds and escapes its own landscapes.
Echo Chamber of Emotions
Silk satin, mesh, glitter-infused fabric, textured woven fabric
Structural pleating, textile layering, hand-stitching, sculptural draping, modular panel layering, piping
I created Echo Chamber of Emotions to explore how emotions reverberate within the human mind—how feelings like anxiety, obsession, and longing repeat like an echo. In order to create a curved, repetitive silhouette, I used a technique called draping, in which I draped different fabrics directly on a mannequin to form pleats that mirror the ebb and flow of emotion. I hand-stitched seams and pipes along the rim of the fabrics to create a sturdy structure that resembles the way in which emotions radiate outwards. Deep oceanic colors of blue evoke serenity intertwined with tension, suggesting the quiet turbulence beneath calm surfaces. Completed in August 2025, Echo Chamber of Emotions embodies the cyclical nature of emotion, translating inner resonance into a tactile, architectural language—where fashion becomes an acoustic space of reflection and release.
Emotional Metamorphosis
Sequined lace mesh, silk organza, nylon tulle, cotton-rayon blend
Hand-stitching, fabric collage, heat texturing, overlay layering, slash texturing
I designed Emotional Metamorphosis after being inspired by the metamorphosis of a cocoon. I wanted to show that emotions—especially during adolescence—transform and grow stronger, similar to the process of metamorphosis. I depicted our outer emotions as a layer that must be shed to reveal a new and refined set of emotions underneath. I hand-cut and collaged sequined lace and embroidered mesh onto fabrics, symbolizing our shimmering “raw” emotions that hide beneath the surface. Over top, I draped translucent silk organza, heat-textured and cut to resemble a cocoon. The contrast between the outer layer and inner garment represents a transition from vulnerability to renewal. Completed in April 2025, Emotional Metamorphosis is a symbol of how pain can lead to a positive transformation. how every cocoon must break open to reveal a newfound self.
My Daily Expression
My Daily Expression reinterprets my six couture collections—The Layered Self, Soft Armor, Cybernetic Skin, Emotional Metamorphosis, Echo Chamber, and The Weight of Joy—into eighteen ready-to-wear designs tailored to my personal style. Each couture piece began as a garment that symbolizes a certain felt emotion. However, through these digital illustrations, I transformed those over-the-top pieces into wearable pieces—illustrating the way in which people can express themselves in their everyday fashion. Each collection is a reconstruction of one of the six pieces: The Layered Self is a collection of leather pieces with a mesh garment; Echo Chamber is a collection of formal clothing with curved pleats; Emotional Metamorphosis is a collection of linen clothing; The Weight of Joy is a collection of playful, colorful and voluminous pieces; Soft Armor is a collection of warm, cute winter clothing. Completed in September 2025, this series is my curated fashion collection.
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Emotive Skins: A Room That Reads (Fashion Illustration)
Door : foam board, balsa wood, acrylic
Fashion drawing : colored pencil, watercolor on kent paper
“Emotive Skins: A Room That Reads” unifies my previous garment design series into a single visual narrative, re-created by hand using watercolor, ink, and colored pencil on paper. Departing from my earlier iPad illustrations, this work explores watercolor’s fluid transparency and ink’s precision to evoke emotional depth.
I envisioned emotion as a room where feelings dwell — its doors opening and closing. Each framed illustration represents a distinct emotional “room”: “Metamorphosis of Emotion”, “Layered Self”, “The Weight of Joy”, “Echo Chamber”, “Soft Shield”, and “Emotional Armor”. Arranged within door-like structures, these images become thresholds through which viewers move from one emotional state to another.
Completed in October 2025, this piece synthesizes all that came before it: a culmination where each emotion, once isolated, finds connection within a shared interior space.
When The Sun & The Moon Coalesce
This piece, created in October 2024, began as a study of how I can express emotion through textiles, exploring how our emotions bloom, thrive, and die out—like flowers cycling through life and decay. I first depicted this process in a full-length gown. I layered chiffon, pleated silk, and translucent organza dyed in gradient tones of red, brown, and beige. The top of the piece embodies the stage of bloom; which turns to wilt; and eventually death. This process —inspired by the life cycle of flowers—embodies how emotions transform overtime. Inspired by this dress, I worked on an experimental textile piece. I wanted to explore the use of textiles, and how fabrics and different textures can be used embody the trace of emotions. When experimenting with this medium, I built flowers made fabrics using a method of layering, a process that mirrors how emotions accumulate and unfold from within. In addition, I experimented with different fabrics through burning, dying and folding, to create different textures. And through this textile experimentation, I’ve learned how to use fabrics as a medium.
