Kyunghee Lee's Projects
The crows come to southern province of Korea in the winter every year. They are dancing and singing together in the air. It seems like symphony orchestra or group dances. I have worked this portfolio from 2010. I love the book, 'Ravens' of Masahisa Fukase. His work is based on the wife's death. Actually I want to work differently. I focused the myth and fantasy of unconsciousness from the crows. The myths have long talked about new creation and births of creatures, repeating itself with slight differences made each time along the way of constant evolution. Fantasy in unconsciousness repeats itself as well. The differences create power, serving as a driving force for its repetition. One can acquire the reason for being and the legitimacy of existence through this process. Thus, the myth and fantasy brings one to life validating its existence and justifying its being. Today, the fine line between the myth and fantasy continues to play tug-of-war of space and time trying to keep its balance in search of a harmonious symmetric life.
‘island’ is not an real island. It’s just a metaphor. I am an island. You are an island. We all are islands. I would like to say “the relationship and communication” between you and I. ‘island’ is my reflection and introspection on relationship and communication The relationships and communications between people as well as its surroundings have always been one of my great interests. With this body of work, I wanted to share my very personal reflections on relationships and communications. Photos are often taken emphasizing on certain objects or themes of importance. In these photographs both the photographer and the object reside in the same absolute space of a snap. Articulation of mutual relationships between their faint yet powerful bonding and never-ending communications are something to look for. This is a self portrait without self, a storybook without words and a list of endless questions with no definite answers. ----------------------------------------------------- PREFACE By David Alan Harvey / Magnum When art mirrors life, the reflection seen is both an inner vision of the artist and taps into the psyche of the viewer as well. Humankind is made up of many "individuals", but a true artist is able to trigger something inside of all of us who may view the work even though the work is coming from a unique "personal vision"... Such an artist is Kyunghee Lee. With her eye and spirit, Kyunghee Lee uses the camera to show us what she sees. While we, the viewers, may not expect what she shows us and are enlightened by what she shows us, we surely understand the moment. Art viewers want surprises and to see something from everyday life seen in a new context. Kyunghee gives us this special pleasure. The world never quite looks the same again after looking at her photographs. When I see her photographs , I sense a romanticism and a lyricism coming from deep inside. Her inner being and personality are put right it front of us, but not in an overly overt way, but with grace and subtlety and style. When I see her work, I recognize the elements, the place, the mood, and yet her "decisive moments" come at me in way that I know I have never seen before. This is art a t it's best. Recognition with enlightenment. Familiarity with surprise. Distance with emotion. Kyunghee Lee puts all of this together as well as anyone I have ever seen. Kyunghee Lee is free and freedom is hard to find. She does it by dancing with the light. By playing with the ordinary she achieves the extraordinary. Her unpretentious photographs hold us. Keep us. Make us think for a while, and yet let us travel as we may through her juxtapositions of both mood and color. Kyunghee Lee is flying. Kyunghee Lee is blowing with a warm wind. And the wind will carry her far and to places even she cannot imagine. We will all be waiting to see what she sees.
One cannot be fully separated from a place. He himself is a place. Making connections with a place by carrying on daily lives are as essential and important as the person to person relationships. A place can be one profound and complicated experience of a man. A place holding its very own natural, cultural and specific energy will interact with men and create multiple histories through the continual cycles of generation and transition. Therefore a place is men’s nature for fundamental existence as well as an origin of one’s identity and stability. FILM MAP is an ongoing project to take photos of the movie locations. Film location is a work to bring out a peculiar concept of space from identity of that place. The new concept of space is preserved in the movie and carved to the audience. However identity of location in the movie is not preserved. The identity of the location in the movie no longer exists. The location loses its own identity. Nevertheless the location is recognized as a place with special meaning place to those who has seen the movie. The place is over-painted by new event of location. The place of location will become a movie-stage in real life. The residents and visitors will newly acknowledge and experience the place as “the place from … movie”. Taking photos of the film locations is a record of the places’ identity changes and the photographer’s personal interpretation of the places along those changes.
Life from Time-Space It was declared the COSMOS DAY on March 15th by National Geography. , history beyond space-time was broadcasted on that day. On the same day ‘Life from Space’ was broadcasted from the International Space Station and the Mission Control of Houston. It was the first time to being live on-air. My interest is in time and space. The interest is not only the progress of science but also the fundamental of human beings. I have questions like ‘Who am I?’, ‘Where do I come from?’. Us, human-beings have been considered the center of universe since the Modern era. But let’s think differently and change perspectives by looking at ourselves from the universe. We are not actually the center of the universe. We are just in the flow of substances. If we are able to see ourselves from the perspective of outer space, we would be more humble and have more respect for other lives. We would be more cordial to each other and have more dignity for ourselves by recognizing that it took a long-long time of the harmonious universe order for us to be present. This recognition is very important and could become the words of comfort to cope with daily traumas we face. This portfolio is about my very personal interest and contemplation on ‘Life from Time-Space’.
Photographs are often called 'stains of light'. In 1827, the first photo by Nicéphore Niépce, which was made by exposing bitmen for about eight hours on the window of his room, was a trace of light. The dancers were performing on the beach. The prints of them performing against the empty sky glowed in black marks. When I see such a "stain," I feel something special that the they were close to me rather than they were similar to reality. Some kind of tactile touch... "The light that touches me standing here seems like the starlight that is delayed."
It’s very hot and humid in the summer. People are not easy to spend the summer. In the past, people used to make smoke to avoid mosquito in the yard and talk to each other to overcome the heat for long summer night, sharing boiled corn or watermelon. The fairy tales of mid-summer night was endless as long as growing hairs. This work was made on the memories of a midsummer nights.
A photograph is a kind of encounter. We encounter objects and take photos of them. A photograph sometimes recalls a memory to us unpredictably.
Gestus is Latin for gestures, movements, attitudes or attitudes, and is distinguished from gestures that simply express human psychology or situations. This is a detailed description of the actions read and shown in the slightest movement of humans, revealing human relationships, social phenomena, interests, etc. And gestus is cultural code reveals detail and alienation. In the picture, we sometimes can grasp the meaning by reading gestus, and we can also create the meaning by gestus.
We celebrate the beginning of spring after long long winter. March 3rd is the opening day of spring in lunar calendar. People hold celebrating events on the hills or by the brooks. We usually make hwajeon(rice pancakes with azalea) and play willow pipe in Korea Spring is coming without fail. I can smell and touch the signs and symptoms from the air and wind before finding spring flowers. Provision of nature is uncanny and sacred for me. I am at the door to welcome the spring. Actually I am very admired by the performance music of ‘The Rite of Spring’ of STRAVINSKY. Therefor I want to make my works of 'The rite of Spring'. This portfolio is my visual interpretation of becoming the spring through minds and feelings. This is my own event of the ceremony for welcoming spring. It seems like a ritual ceremony.
New York, I dreamt I participated in the workshop with David Alan Harvey in New York. This essay was made then in September of 2009. I had dreamt of going to New York because I heard there were many opportunities for people with dreams to succeed. So when I visited there I was very excited to be there. I was very curious that what makes people dream to go there. I was very fascinated by them. I spent over 10 hours each day taking pictures. This portfolio is my impression and reflection about the people and the city of New York. Some of you may know I have published a book, “island”, which is also shown in BURN (e-magazine and book). This portfolio reflects and gives insight into the relationships between you, me and the city as does “island”. “island” was taken at my hometown, but this portfolio, 'New York, I dreamt' was taken in what was for me a strange city. After this trip I have traveled other cities all over the world until 2012. The results of trips of seven cities have evolved to publish my second book, 'The Seventh Sense'. Kyunghee Lee
2,500 years ago, Chinese philosopher Tao said that "communication is making a connection to oblivion." Oblivion is to emptying oneself and being in other's shoes. When I'm empty, It is possible that the object encountered can come and walk into me. Making connection is to be open to and to understand others. In the process of communication, influenced by the Tao's theory, I feel the flow of time. Time, which resides in, is constantly changing and proving its very existence, by itself. Time is very important in photography. In my works, sight of cognitive structure is reversed. Generally we can see close objects clearer than distant objects. But in my work's distant objects are well-seen rather than close objects. It is not how human's vision works. When the authority of sight is changed, It can be said that the vision is objectified. Therefore, very interesting phenomenon arises. Between the verge of reality and fantasy, my work shows that as if there are two different time spaces in the one. That is why it can show many traces of flown-time, which contains many signs and expressions, real memories and intentions of things have not happened. My works contain thick presence, signs, and many latent cases, that have not occurred yet and mixtures of surface effects. They are what it means to express time in a personal manner. I have been taking photos of people and surroundings in cities of the world for the last two years. Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, Oslo, New York, Sydney and Katmandu. This collection is of reflection and insights on the relationships between the cities, society, environment, you and me. It expresses how I meet and communicate with the rest of the world. The relationships and communications between people as well as its surroundings have always been one of my great interests. With this body of work, I wanted to share my very personal reflections on relationships and communications. Photos are often taken emphasizing on certain objects or themes of importance. In these photographs both the photographer and the object reside in the same absolute space of a snap. Articulation of mutual relationships between their faint yet powerful bonding and never-ending communications are something to look for. This is a self portrait without self, a storybook without words and a list of endless questions with no definite answers. ------------------------------------------------------ SAMSARA (The Cycles of Life) Satomi Fujimura Curator, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography When I saw Kyunghee Lee’s work for the first time, I wondered what the floating impression the work created was all about. The images are the fixed ones for sure, but the angles are not. It is probably because she uses a lot of soft focus techniques and reflections rather intuitively than intentionally when taking photographs. In each photograph, images are created in a multilayered manner. So it is hard to grasp what is in the photograph at first glance. Each photograph is a finished work, but it is as if we were looking through the viewfinder before adjusting the focus, as if the next scene were to come up. The theme of Lee’s work this time is the cities in seven different countries she visited. Taking photographs of those cities took her three years, yet her work doesn’t give us a clear idea of its time frame. It may seem the work took much longer time. But it may also seem as if all the photographs were taken at the same time. Lee herself told me she wanted to incorporate a sense of time into her work this time. If we hear of the sense that time goes back and forth, we may think of “time travel” in science-fiction novels and movies. But this time, when I saw her work, it is not “time travel” but “the cycles of life” that came to my mind. The Sea of Fertility, by Yukio Mishima, a leading novelist of modern Japanese literature, is his last full-length novel that pursues the theme of the cycles of life. Shigekuni Honda is a character who acts as the storyteller in this novel. In Lee’s work I detect something comparable to this character’s viewpoints as if her subjects were captured from Honda’s angle. Honda encountered reincarnations of his close friend, Kiyoaki Matsugae, four times in his life. It seems that he always looked around to seek something beyond. The term “samsara,” or the cycles of life, is common in the countries where people are familiar with Asian Buddhist or Hindu traditions, but in the other countries, it might be difficult to understand the notion of “reincarnation.” However, everyone must have a memory of wondering what their prior state of being might be, at one time or another. Lee’s work not only shows the subjects depicted in the photograph. It also adumbrates a notion of time and space which are at the back of the images. To imagine such time and space is a sweet experience. Sweet as it is, it also makes us feel a little fear that we might overlook something important.
Tropical Scent I have worked at the general hospital for 30 years as a pharmacist. I was very sick about 10 years ago. From that time I suddenly interested in photography. Photography could give me a breath. I have walked and moved to take pictures. My health have gotten better and better. People really wants some places to breathe and take rests. The Earth needs some rests like us, too. We people contaminate and dirty the Earth too much. Dr. Steven Hocking have already given us the strict warning about disasters to human. One of them is destruction of the environment. As he warned, we might have to leave the Earth and move to a new planet to live within 1000 years. This scenario is very scary. We should do something to save our nest just now. It might be very small movement to survive and to save Earth. But if all the Earth family joined this movement together we could turn an impossibility into a possibility. I want to believe in the confidence.
Re- tour as an English vocabulary does not exist. This is a self-made word. ‘Re’ means ‘repetition’ and ‘tour’ means ‘long journey of soul’. While I have worked this portfolio I realize that life involves joy, pain, sadness, chaos and even death. And I realize that life is fragile, too. But life is an eternal and a continuing universe. Contents : legend / birth / love / chaos / empty / freedom/ ideal / desire / reflection and substance
When I was young, I read the book called <The Arabian Nights's Entertainment>. The book is written of a thousand days of stories in Arabic from Persia around the 6th century. I could see exciting adventures, fantasies and mysterious magic through this book. Sometimes nights become the Arabian Nights.
Human beings have been leaving their faces for a long time, such as the mummy of the pyramid, the statues of the Greek and Roman period, and the murals of the tombs. People with power and wealth made artists paint their own portraits, leaving numerous self-portraits themselves. Since Joseph Nicephore Niepce invented the photograph in 1827, many people have had their portraits taken. Since the invention of the 21st century smartphone they all have been enthusiastically playing selfie and posting it on social networking sites. Wherever you go, you can see people take selfie. Then why do people fall into selfie? Basically, Human beings have a desire to leave their faces, but the innovative technology of combining the camera and the communication that came into the palm of the hand played a major role in the enormous spread of selfie. Then what does it mean as a social and cultural phenomenon? Is it narcissus or an exploration of self-identity? In order to objectify this question, I targeted the people who take selfies. Here I find one clue. One is a photographer and one’s own object. Therefore the subject is object at the same time. In fact, contiguity is more significant than resemblance in that photos are the traces of light. Phillipe Dubois says that the index logic gives strong power to the image endlessly in his book, L’acte photographique, and that desire is always caused by contiguity rather than resemblance. If so, is selfie related to the contiguity to the object within an arm length? When we gaze at an object, the eyes produce an image that was not in the original object. Jacques Lacan expressed this as stealing his image from the things. In other words, the self-image stolen from the object provides deep narcissism to the subject, thereby creating its hallucinatory satisfaction. So, when we take a picture, it is to gaze at an object through the lens, and the eye becomes filled with our own image while we are staring at. Ego creates inevitably a psychedelic satisfaction by producing or stealing the image of itself in the place where he stares at. If the object is himself, and if it is also within the arm’s length, then the satisfaction will be sufficient to offer narcissistic Jouissance.
One day, I was working on <communication>. I thought it would be much easier to communicate if the subject and the object changed their positions each other. And if the sensory organs wrapped disturb communication? However, against expectations, people became more focused on themselves and opened up their sensitivity to accepting others.
물에게. 이 山河를 두고 아프지 마라. 지구의 물 부족이 심각하다는 보도는 어제 오늘의 일이 아니다. 개발의 이름으로 얼마나 많은 자연이 파괴되었으며, 환경이 자연 정화와 치유의 한계를 넘어선 지는 오래전이다. 사람들은 누구나 지친 몸과 영혼을 달래려고 자연을 향해 달려가곤 하지만 자연 속에서 여러 가지 것들을 버리고 온다. 그리고 정작 일상으로 돌아가서는 눈앞의 이익 때문에 개발에 더욱 전투적이 되어 버린다. 내가 자라고 지금도 살고 있는 부산은 낙동강이 굽이 흐르고 어디를 달려가도 곧 바다에 도달한다. 멀리 출장을 갔다가 돌아올 때 하늘 위에서 내려다보이는 금빛 낙동강 줄기를 보노라면, 역의 플랫폼으로 들어서는 순간, 바람결에 실려 오는 소금기 머금은 바다냄새를 맡을 때 내 차마 이곳을 버릴 수는 없을 것이라고 마음 저 깊은 곳에서부터 저려온다. 지금 우리나라에서는 ‘4대강 사업’에 대한 논의가 뜨겁다. 찬성하는 쪽은 수질 개선과 저수량 확보를 주장하고 있고, 반대하는 쪽은 자연친화적 환경파괴와 개발에 따른 이차적 파괴를 이유로 들고 있다. 나는 이 분야에 전문가가 아니다. 다만 내가 자라면서 익히 보면서 자라왔고 지금도 내곁에 있는 이 아름다운 모습이 안녕을 고한다는 사실이 마음 아프다. 얼마나 이 모습에서 이 품속에서 위로와 평안, 안도감을 얻었던가. 무조건적인 내버려둠, 방치나 콘크리트로 보를 높이고 정화기계를 설치하는 것보다 우리 모두가 강과 산, 들, 바다를 청소부터 해야 하는 것이 아닐까. 집을 쓸고 닦지는 않고 건물만 번듯하게 잘 지어 놓는다고 해서 집이 깨끗해지는 것은 아닌 것 같다. 아주 기본적인 정리와 청소가 중요하다고 본다. ‘4대강 사업’을 찬성하는 쪽도, 반대하는 쪽도 휴일이면 모두 산이고 바다로, 강으로, 들판으로 청소를 하러 나가 보자. 쓰레기부터 치워 보자. 거창한 계획보다 무조건적인 방치보다 보살피고 가꾸는 애정이 필요하다. 아마도 너는 들을 수 있을 것이다. 너를 표현하기에는 언제나 형용사밖에는 없다.
Shamanism is very popular unconsciously in Korean culture, behavior and history like the Christianity in the Western. Korean has subtly experienced the effects of shaman cultural surroundings since childhood. 'Gut' is the most important religious ceremony of Shamanism. Shaman, the priest is trained through long training and learning. But Gut is prohibited by government because it is classed as superstitious after 1970. So it is barely keeping deep in the mountains and its ceremony is vanishing soon. Only Donghae Byulsin Gut is designated as an intangible cultural asset and keeps going as a play for peace and wishes of fishing village. Gut is a ceremony, a play and a strong field of life. And it is a process of dealing with gods who answer a person's wishes. Through the ceremony of Gut, gods and people, people and people understand and make up with each others. Gut is focused on reality of life. People learn compromise and adjustment through Gut. Shaman is selected by gods after ill-defined disease. He is treated in a cold way. He can't to be gods and ordinary man. Gut is composed of five processes which are handed down orally. I become interested in not only Shamanism as traditional culture but also the media in communication and relationship between people and god through taking pictures of Gut.
Pinocchio is a familiar fairy tale to us. The fairy tells that if Pinocchio can prove true courage, he can become a real human being. But every time he lies, his nose grows. The more lies are added, the longer the nose becomes and the more branches are formed on his nose, and birds fly in and build their nests. Sometimes I imagine if birds fly in and nest on his nose Pinocchio and the birds could be friends. This work was done with a smartphone that was inspired by Pinocchio's nose.
A few years ago, I lost my youngest brother. My family hasn't come out of deep grief for a long time. This work is about longing for my lost brother. I worked with a smartphone.
"What time is it there? "' is the first question that comes to mind when I miss someone far away. It can be when you are far away in space, or when you are far away in time. This work is based on the intuition from longing. I made it with my smartphone.