Press Release
Lee Lee-Nam, “Van Gogh Sunflower – Time,” 2010, 55inch LED TV, 77*129*10cm, 4min19sec, 1\6
Dream and Life One school of thought believes that the practice of art creation was originally developed from the course of games. Whether it is true or not is subject to arguments between art historians, while there is little doubt about the presence of certain game elements in the video art of Lee, Lee-Nam.
By cutting-edge digital technology, Lee extracts classical images from Oriental and Western masterpieces for transformation and re-construction into new video works. Through his unrestrained Imagination, solemn jewels of authoritative fine art all become cards between sleeves of a magician that move the audience to laughter and tears. In New Portrait (2009,5 min 35 sec), the image of Van Gogh in his famous Self-Portrait is turned alive: he is smoking his pipe and, at the same time, wining at the audience. And in Mona Lisa (2007,2 min 59 sec), high-tech military planes are shuttling like flying insects in front of the elegant lady, who is staring, with her well known mysterious gaze, at these intruders in complete puzzlement.
A “parody format” gives the narrative text of Lee distinct character and power. The atmosphere of playfulness in his works provides a cheerful and soothing mood, which is in many cases actually a smoke curtain for setting up a subtle but surprising and even acute message that strikes the
totally unprepared audience. The awakening is wrapped in amusing juggling.
Furthermore, games are by nature imitative if but never restricted by the reality. In a narrative written in a “game-like” language, the artist is free to remove all boundaries of space and time. Anything can be dislocated or relocated and, thus, time becomes limitless and space becomes limitless. In New Kiss (2009, 5 min 30 sec), the image of the world renounced painting of Klimt (1862-1918) is juxtaposed with a number of scenes of kissing extracted from modern movies. Fascinatingly witty and inspiring dislocation and relocation of household images liberalize our firmly rooted perceptions and open for use endless alternative possibilities. Each of his works guides us into a dreamland which is so familiar and. concurrently, so strange to us.
The mission of Lee is well beyond re-interpretation, expansion or subversion of prior works. Between the images blinking across his monitors, he is telling his original stories and making his own statements. Hi cares for the addresses a wide range of issues. While he is a pioneer in the exploration of the frontier of media art in the context of the unprecedented digital era, the
backbone of his aesthetics and life philosophy probably remains rested upon the old Oriental tradition. Landscape Using ink Runs (2010, 7 min 19 sec) starts with Chinese characters written in finest calligraphy drifting in a clear void which is reminiscent of the primeval sky. They gradually move close to each other and are finally merged together to form the image of a landscape of Sesshu Toyo (the most prominent Japanese master in ink painting in the 15th century). The motion picture then shows a universal life journey: first comes spring fog, then summer rain, followed by autumn breeze and, lastly, snowflakes. When the cycle is done, the landscape disintegrates back into the same Chinese Characters shown at the very beginning. They diffuse in all directions and disappear, ash to ash, dust to dust.
Tolstory has said
“Art is not, as the, metaphysicians say, The manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty of God;
It is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, A game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy;
It is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs;
It is not the production of pleasing objects;
And, above all, it is not pleasure;
But it is a means of union among men, Joining them together in the same feelings,
And indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being
Of individuals and of humanity.”
Behind the child-like smiling face of Lee, Lee-Nam is a respectable ambition: to achieve the ultimate goals of art as suggested by the great writer and to bring pleasure to us as well.
FENG Ge
