Features artasiapacific.com^89(Opposite page)
HOW TO BECOME US, 2011, 60 collected
objects combined into an average weight
of 5.06 kg, dimensions variable.
(This page)
IF GIVEN A CHANCE, I DO REFUSE IT,
2012, mixed-media, dimensions variable.
When I met Lee at a former steel warehouse turned studio in
the Mullae-dong area of Seoul in January, he told me he was
juggling a number of projects. The next day, he was due to travel to
Malaysia to film the final segment of “Made In” that will premiere at
the Venice Biennale. Accompanying this will be Proper Time and
Mr. K and the Collection of Korean History (2017), a large-scale
project that narrates the life of the semi-fictitious “Mr. K,” loosely
based on a man called Kim Kimoon who lived from the 1930s to- The installation will piece together an archive of 14,000
photographs with a collection of various artifacts to offer unreliable
narratives of Korea’s tumultuous modern history. Additionally,
the images will be partially obscured and only visible through
peepholes, which further questions “the legitimacy of seamless
and coherent construction of universal history,” and challenges
viewers to explore relative truths amid a stifling social atmosphere
of material excess and information overload.
The works on view at Lee Wan’s latest exhibition in February, at
313 Art Project in Seoul, further solidified the artist’s unwavering
tenacity in addressing social issues. The series “A Diligent Attitude
Toward a Meaningless Thing” (2017) consists of abstract paintings
marked with enigmatic calligraphic scrawls, co-produced by Lee
and eight migrant workers hired through a local employment
agency. The resulting lyrical and minimalist epiphanies on the
gallery walls were visually captivating, but they left viewers with
a moral dilemma that is echoed throughout all of his works. Lee
seemed to be asking: What determines the true value of art? Is it
the observer? Or is it the sacrifices made in the name of labor and
capitalism? Political and transformative, Lee Wan’s rebellious
expressions encourage us to consider the world beyond its
material, consumerist terms.
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