The Quest for Identity in the Context 

of the Changeable  and the Unchangeable 

 - About Works of Lee, Myung-Il -

 Kim, Kwang-Myung

What is art? What does it mean to human beings in particular? I believe art is what guides us to deep contemplation of our lives and the world we live in. It is what broadens our perspectives on life and the world. Contemplation leads to awareness, as has been proven in the long history of art. Living in the time and space realm which evokes a question where they are from, we continuously seek for identity. And the way identity is being sought is revealed in different ways and expressions of various art works.

 What makes us pay attention to artist Lee Myung-Il? He is an artist who has been striving to identify his own language in art, as seen in his works presented to date in his nine solo exhibitions and some 180 group exhibitions. Such of his sincere quest has also recently been recognized as he was cited as one of the final candidates for a prestigious art award. In his works we see a shift in expression style and perspective, i.e. from the way other people are seen in him, to the way he himself is seen in him. The objectified self is transformed into a retrospective self. Inside and outside, oneself and others, such dual, relational implication is demonstrated in the way background and images of his works correlate to each other. In Lee's works, the dynamics between the background and images create tension as well as room for contemplation. Life and existence that appear in his works create conflicts and contrast between affirmation and disaffirmation of his thoughts.

Change is an inevitable fate of the time, but it implies continuation rather than a cut-off. I find Lee always in the quest of changes and transformation, and he himself also believes that an artist always needs to be open to changes. Nevertheless, we find a consistent theme in his series of works, i.e. quest for the spiritual world deep inside of a human being, which is a journey to find one's true self. And results of his agonized quests are contemplatively demonstrated in his works. His unique configuration of space reveals various facets of his contemplation and meditation. The topics he has been grappling with for the past 10 years show the seriousness of his pursuit of identify, the relation between his inner self and outer world, existence and phenomena, as revealed in the title of his works, <Three Scarecrows >(1993), <Born in this Land >(1996), <Crowd>(1999), <Ave Maria >(2000), <Two Encounters>(2002), <Love>(2002), <Life>(2003), <To Exist, or To Sustain? >(2004).

 In particular, his latest works that show a human face in different perspectives and angles express subtleness and complexity of human emotions via a simplified human face or head shape, and sometimes in the shape of heart. Simple though, it is with sublimated beauty of expression that elicits fixation. We live in the world, struggling between what can be presented and what cannot, what can be seen and what cannot, what can be changed and what cannot. Existence itself cannot be changed but what exists has no choice but to change over time. Art connects what exists to existence itself. To put it differently, art is a quest for what is invisible via visible phenomena. Lee calls what exists as existing bodies. And Lee's contemplation on these existing bodies is meditatively revealed in his works. The question, 'Who am I' is also being directed to us as we see his works in contemplation and meditation. One can taste the beauty of emptiness in the way he configures spaces in his works, which shows aspects of his approach derived from oriental tradition and thought.

 Until he finds out a color he would like, he paints layer after layer with patience, and subtle changes and differences in colors are gradually manifested in such a process. In particular, his dense groundwork creates unique effects where the background and images meet. Such unique effects, subtle difference in texture speaks volume about his sincerity and incessant efforts: given the time and efforts he has spent for a work, we cannot help but recognize his sincerity as an artist. Above all, the simple yet rich expression of his latest works shows his unaffected, unostentatious life, which truly invites viewers to share and appreciate his works.

 <Professor Kwang-Myung Kim earned his B.A and M.A degrees in philosophy (aesthetics) from Seoul National University and Ph. D. in philosophy of art from Wurzburg, Germany. He was a visiting professor at Temple University, the U.S, and currently is a professor of philosophy (philosophy of art) at Soongsil University. His works and translation works include 『Understanding Kant's Aesthetics』, 『Art & Human Value』 among others. He presented his thesis "Aesthetic Freedom and Human Being" in the 13th International Aesthetics Forum held in Finland, and has actively participated and presented his thesis in various other international academic forum held in New York, Berlin, etc.> kmkim@ssu.ac.kr

COPYRIGHTⓒ2008  Gallery HAN