Seulgi Lee

Since relocating to Paris from Seoul more than twenty years ago, Seulgi Lee has developed a unique artistic practice immediately recognizable for its use of color, gesture, simple yet elegant forms, and performance. In spite of (or perhaps linked to) its deference to bright, cheerful color, Lee has described her sculptural practice as utilitarian, invariably related to the power, fragility, and contingency of the body: her works are tools, to be available at-hand, used by those who are nearby. Culled from everyday belongings, masks, and pedestrian objects, these artworks frequently employ a vocabulary more readily used to describe craft, and challenge arbitrary distinctions between mannered, formal sculptural syntax and a more popularized design or craft aesthetic. (-> page 3)

1.

2.

3.

A generalized appeal to brightly colored fabric and banner-like structures opens onto the often political nature of Lee’s work; earlier actions such as Une Afghane en Corse (An Afghan in Corsica)[1] features documentation of the artist wandering the streets of Corsica while dressed in a self-fashioned eil of bright floral patterns – a subversive camouflage suggestive of a burka or hijab. The artist has also meticulously embroidered large, pink « STRIK »[2] banners for French citizens marching in protest of proposed legislation that would severely restrict employment. In foregrounding the time-consuming act of lacemaking and sewing, Lee’s response to striking – a time when one is ostensibly not working – acts as a subtle commentary on the devaluation of female labor, an unnamed toil that still consumes time. Exhibited in La Triennale, BÂTON comprises a group of 17 long sticks, each sheathed in colorful silk. Lee painstakingly describes these attributes, deploying color as its own language: red, blue, yellow, magenta, bright Granny Smith apple, carmine, etc. Playful yet slightly ominous in scale, the bâtons (slightly longer than 5 meters and 5 centimeters in diameter) are placed against the wall in various configurations, their casings carefully stitched to obscure the interior material of each object. When placed together, their various groupings evoke banners, parades, and ritualistic display, yet never completely disavow their rigidity, strength, and vaguely martial connotation. James Merle Thomas, April 2012 (in Intense Proxilmity, The Guidebook for La Triennale, coedited by Centre national des arts plastiques – Artlys, Le Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012) [1] 2001, [2] 2003, 2004.

U (previous page) is a collection of blankets which «tell» a proverb. The story is translated by an abstract composition of vivid colors, often symmetrical, linked to the particularity of the format of the cover and its technique of sewing. The ambition of this project is to explore the relation between oral culture and the handcraft in an objective synthesis [in the sense of Claude Lévi-Strauss in Tristes Tropiques, «... que pour atteindre le réel il faut d’abord répudier le vécu, quitte à la réintégrer par la suite dans une synthèse objective dépouillée de toute sentimentalité.» - that to reach the real, one must repudiate the experience, even though one must reintegrate thereafter in an objective synthesis without any sentimentality.][among other texts* I’m thinking about afterward.] The blanket of bed = place of enchantment The composition of vivid colors = invitation of tale The technique of korean quilting Nubi (equivalent to japanese Sashiko, french Boutis or Piqué, italian Trapunto, american Quilt, persian embroidery, ...) = economy or pratical questions in the tradition The notion of collection and of protection. A votive sculpture. Exemples of korean proverbs (by order) 1. U - Choose the red shirt (take the best one). 2. U - Show a duck leg (lie). NB. Orange diamond (duck’s leg) is sewn in a vertical way rather than the ground is sewn in a horizontal way. 3. U - Even though you are in front of the beautiful landscape such as Gumgang Mountain, if you are hungry, you don’t see anything. *“In traditional societies, everything that made sense of the world was real: the surrounding chaos existed lost in introspection: turned in on themselves, in a loop. They’re trying to find a logic specific to themselves and so they seem to be rebelling and was threatening, but it was threatening because it was unreal. Without a home at the center of the real, one was not only shelterless, but also lost in non-being, in unreality.” John Berger, quoted by Franco La Cecla, in Alan Read (Ed.)(translation by Stuart Wylen)), «Architecturally Speaking», London, Routledge, 2000.

BÂTON

is made up of a group of 17 long sticks, sheathed by colorful silk, put against the wall. Each one has a different color. Red, blue, yellow, magenta, bright Granny Smith apple, carmine, vanilla, teal, white, fuchsia, green, light pink, ultramarine, lavender, violet, orange-red, Tiffany blue are laid out side by side. These straight sticks of more than 5 meters and thick of 5 centimeters put therefore againt the wall, in other words, almost standing up. Their colorful silk case is closed on both sides by stitching, hiding the material which constitute the interior. Also, one can hardly distinguish the other end of the sticks despite of the careful stitching work in order to close the form. One may carry out the stick/s before it/they fall/s over us. The weight, the rigidity of these poles tell us the material of the structure. Lined up together, this group can evoke some waiting strike banners or a parade to come of the confraternity Sainte Barbe.

IDO

is a furtive monument. This project is dedicated to the ephemeral comunity formed in a existing bus line every day. IDO does across or come close to the river of the city, the pronunciation of «O» in French meaning «water». Come up for the first time in Bordeaux, 2009 then in Nevers during 20 days in 2012 with usual public bus driver.

K

The individuals of the CLAMOUR. Face, mask with two little holes so as to see through and two lumps more or less long like the nose, tongue, penis or horn. The faces change but it can be the matter of one and only character such as Klamm in «The Castle» of Kafka. Klamm is known from all village but according to the person who describes him, he changes physical appearance. Each of them is called «K» for a moment. They can be presented alone or together. The group is named «CLAMOUR». The first time, I presented eleven of them next to the four striped columns turning around slowly. Near a mask with two protuberances drawing stripes by the outline of the shadow. Each face has a different noise. K. K K K K, K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K ...

I

The columns turning around slowly.

PLASTIC CUP

This is a disposable cup laid down on a plastic tray, fast food style, with a straw coming out of the cup. This cup spits out the transparent drink through the straw, this is a fountain as well. Or a permanent object. Here, the cup is on strike by rejecting its function, task that is given to it at some point, so as to better think about. (One might find several works that I have done in form of objects in movement. What I’m interested in might be to give a chance for those objects to talk, a voice, which is a vibration, a movement.) This fountain is very different than the «RAIN/ FOUNTAIN» except that both have a recognizable form, a head, a cup. This recognizable form, in other words, «standard» form allows me to pass through the other side of the immediate reality so as to organize a different form of linguistic experience.

RAIN/ FOUNTAIN This work is made up with a head covered by hairs. On top of the hairs water drops are falling down such as pearls. The water falls down from the mid long hairs and hold in a white basin. You can turn around and around you will not see the face of the head. This image-sculpture is coming from a drawing that I’ve done with lines finishing by dots. It is thus important to see the water drops falling down from the extremity of the hairs. I’m interested in shaping this state of in-between, transformation of the heap (amas) of hairs like vegetative mass, into a liquid state. I’m trying to keep this state in suspense, the water flows as much as it can, it is a fountain functioning in a continuous loop. The sound of the water blurs our perception of time in a repetitive movement, leading us in an endless time. Or even restful, introducing a grotesque dimension on a head without voice. (In the popular imaginery, the association of hairs and of water is not rare. In the movie directed by Charles Laughton, «The Night of the Hunter» (1955), one can see the corpse of the murdered wife of the priest floating on the bottom of the river, the corpse in a car, hairs waving in the sens of the seaweed. One can see some resemblance with «Gui-chine, the korean phantom worn in white, generally represented by a female figure with long black hairs waving in the wind hiding the face. But everyone who has been following the story knows who it is, to haunt the weak spirits like us. To come back to the «RAIN/ FOUNTAIN», this cut head has somehow a meditative aspect as I said, thanks to the sound of falling water, such as on the edge of the fountain in a garden. The title «RAIN» is coming from this visible movement from top to bottom, I add «FOUNTAIN» for subtitle to emphasize the transfigured link. I take the rain for a fountain, I like imagining things being upside down, such as the relationship with others...)

RED CAT

will be living in a museum.

HANDLE

a group of handles is coming out of a grey cube, forming a landscape of animals tails. And another view with FLYING CARDBOARD BOX)

AUTOMATIC : homage to the thief

Collection of machines célibataires. Zoom over FLYING CANDIES.

CLOCHES(BELLS)

is made out of hundred animal bells, plastic braided bags, chain (under 25 meters hight), painted tire and people who try it. When all bells are in the same direction, they don’t make sound. In the champagne Domaine Pommery, Reims, France.

DOKEBI

will be spinning around whenever one gets close to. About 2 meters hight.

BIBIKI

«Seulgi Lee’s work often explores new meanings and resonances of familiar objects. In this work, frottement, a battery of performers to carryout a simple sound-producing activity: common household objects are repeatedly lifted and dropped on the floor of the space. These non descript objects suddenly release new potential identities just as they fall to their destruction. Jiyoon Yang, Seoul»

WHEEL/CHEESE

will be made out of a trunk of tree and barks from another tree. Not too big, not too small.

EEL

is a wood engraving weapon to kill eel to eat. It resembles to eel.

RAFT

is a disoriented compass. Its colors indicate the direction, the black for the north, and etc. The project takes place on La Loire, one of the longest French river in Nevers, end 2012.