Lee LeeNam-The Glitter of PoseidLEE′s Eyes

The Light of Lee Leenam, or the Splendid Journey

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He keeps this phrase in mind as a golden rule: “I hope an audience might be able to stand in front of one painting for at least five minutes.” This is a comment by eminent French art historian Daniel Arasse. If a gallery visitor does not stay in front of a work of art, it is dead art! Lee found his way in the Eastern and Western Masterpieces. While staying before Lee’s media works from curiosity, the audience comes to look at it longer and deeper. In his works, technology(digital) does not outshine art(analog). This harmonious coexistence is the biggest virtue of his art. This is why John Rajchman, an internationally renowned scholar in the field of convergent media art and Columbia University professor, highly praised Lee when he visited Lee’s studio in Gwangju in 2011. Thus, the modifier “the second Nam June Paik” which might once have looked heavy for him to carry now seems to be a perfect match for him.

Although an audience may remain in front of a work of art, an artist is not content with the present. Lee studied sculpture in college. It was media art that earned him reputation as an artist, but he has never forgotten where he started. “Reborn Light,” his 2014 solo exhibition at Gana Art Center, was certainly a milestone to mark it. The installation sculptures came as a fresh shock to those who were familiar only with his ‘moving art.’ Lee continuously dreams and practices innovation. He never fails in taking a thick notepad even in a private meeting. Whenever he hits upon a new idea, he writes it down in detail to use it as a reference material for his new work. What he is today is not what someone naturally becomes. His unique diligence and sincerity are the great merits which make us to expect his next step.

Looking back, there was ‘light’ in the center of Lee’s art from the moment when his media art was born. Is the content which moves lively on the monitor that is merely a mechanical device eventually the trace made by ‘light’? In this exhibition at POSCO Art Museum, Lee, ‘an alchemist of light,’ takes his vigorous investigation into ‘light’ to a deeper level. The use of mother of pearl which creates an ever-changing play of light is the artist’s unprecedented experiments. Cabinets inlaid with mother-of-pear which took the blood, sweat and tears of unknown craftsmen has its own beauty. Nevertheless, they are nothing but a mere legacy of the past to which little attention is paid. Lee gathers these cabinets and carves the icons of the time on the panels.

The hollows are scooped out of mother-of-pearl inlaid panels by a chisel. It is none other than ‘light’ that fills up these holes. The light of self-luminous mother-of-pearl and that of digitally reborn Joseon paintings create beautiful harmony. Reborn on the temporal horizon of the past and the present, Lee’s works speak to the audience. ‘Light’ is an indispensible element which comprises our visible world, that is, the world that we can see with eyes. Then, where does light come from? Lee’s light asks a question toward the very origin and essence. The artist dreams of the essential world beyond the invisible world through the world of visible light. Now art relates both to the transcendence beyond the limits and to the spirit beyond matter.

The world which appears each time in different clothes, such as a folding screen, Venus, and the Gundam robot, is truly varied and diverse. Pieces of mother-of-pearl emit their own specific colors of light, as if saying that there are no two alike. They give wholly different impressions according to how high your eye level is and where you look from. Lee who made two-dimensional paintings reborn to be three-dimensional on the monitor now goes out of the monitor, or another two-dimensionality, and then strides purposefully toward concrete installation sculpture. Evidently, the artist here intends to show ‘the light of truth’ which exists beyond the visible on the temporal horizon bridging the past and the present. And this explains why he coined a new word by combining two words, meaning a god(Poseidon) and a human(Lee Leenam), for his exhibition title.

This solo show is held in Korea in almost two years and that composed of only new works. If Lee’s art has the power to hold the audience’s attention, it is not simply due to some splendor or special quality that is visible to us. It requires more: the attitude of meditation and contemplation. The light of Lee Leenam is a result of strenuous efforts to humbly approach the ultimate truth. For someone, this light may be salvation, hope, or healing. So it is always pleasant and exciting to follow the journey of this brilliant light which is developed by the artist. May you who stand in front of his works meet a ray of light that has slept inside of you … May you fill up your heart with the very light…

Kim Seok (KBS Reporter)