Page 20 - Genius

lee Myung hwan

lives and works in Seoul, South korea

SEARCH THE ARTIST ONLINE http://leemh.egloos.com/

idealistic but Practical, lee Myung-hwan’s Spontaneity
As an imaginative artist, lee Myung-hwan's works are reminiscent
of Duchamp’s intellectual approach and Paik Nam-june’s unilinear
composition and single event aesthetics.
Duchamp’s logic, ready to be realized Ideas
looking into the works like House-going Out from Convex Mirror, it is
evident that his works are elegant and logical like Duchamp’s. However,
lee’s ideas range from microscopic ecology to cutting-edge science
fiction, then ready to establish in the real world. In Mobile Home, lee is
inspired by underground passages such as those of the ants. Then lee’s
imagination developed to travel North korea to announce a long-cherished
national desire, unification. Again, lee’s strategy advanced to the tube for
the space shuttle crew and magnetic tube into space as if in S. F. movies.
The idea was hit at April 2003, and preceded to Non-gravity light velocity
Train. That is to say, he demonstrated the possible future of running a
transcontinental train through Europe and Asia with the velocity of light
in the tube, ready to be realized.
Paik nam-june’s aesthetics, Visualizing in the real world
Tension-15 Degrees well illustrates the after-manner of Paik Nam-june’s
linear aesthetic with a simple story line, neither complicated, nor difficult to
catch promptly. In the work, his body is declined in 15 degrees relying upon
the suction power of cupping glass. Spectators may focus on protruding
circular marks or optical transformation of body, however, his artistic image
is crystal clear, like single line story. lee’s Performance art, dedicated
to Paik Nam-june, Color-bar Coat had a standard or more developed
aesthetics than Paik. The knitted color-bar coat is getting loose from the
neck to the feet, until return to the knitting thread, leaving a dismantled
color, shape and image.
idealist based on real world
based on two great masters of 20th century, Duchamp and Paik Nam-june,
lee’s art developed to the ideal and romantic moralist aesthetics, dreaming
of the prosperous future of mankind.
With Mobile garden, he seems to be sure to prevent the destruction of
the earth, from man-made disasters such as global warming, melting of
arctic ice, and the destruction of ozone layer. His idea is that if people
wear the mobile lawn garden like a hat and life buoy, then ubiquitous and
eco-friendly utopian space will be established.
In Moral Coat, designed to reform the psychopath morally and ethically, lee
is dreaming of a moral utopia by people. People would admonish virtue and
truth by funnel-shaped megaphone to the psychopath in the moral coat.
In contrast to the admonishment in the Moral Coat, Humanicon is a device
to cure the destructive impulse by awakening the symbol of the heart
icon. In the work, at a downward facing monitor fastened and stretched
to the ceiling with four fabric arms, a red heart icon is displayed. At the
four corners, where four men wear the cloths connected to the monitor;
all they can see is the red heart.
Thus, the work announces the rehabilitation of the humanistic virtue
devastated by unethical contents caused by the internet revolution.
kim young-jai, Art philosopher, Ph.D. *
20