JeeYoung Lee Art

"This work is a collaborative piece I produced with a traditional fan-making master. Each folding fan was carefully crafted, colored and arranged to complete the scene. Using the traditional motif of the fan, I tried to reinterpret the meaning of true-view landscape painting, through which painters of the Joseon Dynasty sought not to just describe the look of nature but to portray the essence of nature itself. Koreans traditionally painted landscapes onto fans and I, reversely, use the fans themselves to build a landscape, thus juxtaposing the relationship of fans and landscape. The woods made with paper fans overlapping like fish scales suggest a self-portrait of a gloomy psychology as well as an expression of various complex emotions such as inner fear and anguish that restrain me. Depicting a very fundamental human reverence and fear toward the sublime, dark, and ever changing nature of the night forests...

"The patterns in this piece were derived from the places of childhood play and the memories of me hiding myself inside a closet as a place of escape. The piece also involves a series of occurrences that happened in childhood relationships. To imply the state of emotional chaos, Op art was employed in tactfully expressing the messiness of a room; and by turning mere boudoir items, or sewing tools into ones that seem aggressive and disquieting, I tried to evoke the fear that a child has when facing changes to the world they are familiar with. It also tells that unforeseen difficulties may lie in wait nearby." _JeeYoung Lee...