Yeon Sook LEE

After studying Sculpture at Hongik University and Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, Lee has worked on projects centered on the themes of daily experiences, the memory of space and the changes of perception. In her previous works, she presented her concerns over social issues in a symbolic manner by integrating personal memories into a certain event through abandoned and used daily objects. For the recent site-specific projects and solo exhibitions, such as Vanished Landscape (Kim Heesoo Art Center Art Gallery, Soorim Cultural Foundation, Seoul, 2020) and Running stage (Maehyang-ri Studio, Hwaseong, 2020), Body Sound Door (Horanggasy Creative Studio, Gwangju, 2020), Lee has expanded her focus from a private space to a public space. Centered on an architectural space and the accumulate narratives of the personal histories of such a space, Lee has worked on site-specific installations that can create an empathic narrative structure on personal life that exist in specific events and social phenomena through videos, sculpture, installation and performances. She has shown her works at many exhibitions including MaytoDay (former Armed Forces Gwangju Hospital, Gwangju Biennale, 2021), and has participated in the ZK/U Residency (Berlin, 2019), ACC Arts Space Network Residency (Gwangju, 2018), Daegu Art Factory Residency (Daegu, 2018).

See, be able to see, cannot help but see.
Being seen, be able to be seen, cannot help but be seen.

“Jingle, Ji-i-n-gle…”
Only the sound of the bell. That sound of the bell passing through the darkness.
Nabi (the cat that used to be taken care of) announces its presence in such a way.

“He is wearing nothing!”
The child speaks when he finds the emperor standing naked in an imposing manner while wearing his invisible splendid clothes.

The words of existence and a belief came to me from my memory of the sound of the bell that would indicate Nabi moving and the children’s story about the emperor in his new great but invisible clothes. We look at the world with a belief in multi-channeled senses which can be obtained by the five senses. Science and technology have allowed us to look into not only the humans’ physical movement but also the scope of the mind, holding inconvenience as security. I intended to express the boundary of the invisible and the visible, including “the invisible eyes” of contemporary society and the flow of air that can be revealed by my movements. In other words, we can experience the boundaries of the materials and non-materials or the virtual and the reality that we face in our life in this space created by the voice device and translucent plastic. It aims to express various social phenomena that we have encountered in the age of the pandemic and due to the advancement of science and technology or those that we are expected to encounter in a different way. The space consists of the flexible wall in the shape of X, which indicates a void space for architecture design, and this reveals the existence of the viewers in a visible way. At the same time, the sound of the bell installed under the curtain affirms such an existence once again.
The passengers of the subway on the opposite site whom we absently look at. The eyes of all are focused on their smart phones. In return for enjoyment, we are generous to the exposed “fact” that we were in the same place at the same time. Being screened means a fear of the invisible existence and my mind that is being ever so gently controlled. Screening me softly!