Solicitude for the self
 
1.
The current exhibition is the first solo exhibition for Yearn-Kyung Lee. The artist has been steadily working on to honestly reveal herself. Through her works, she has hoped to reach the deep inside part of herself by transparently disclose her potential emotions such as desire, pleasure, happiness, anxiety, or wrath, and step aside a little to objectively face them. In other words, her works began from her ‘attitude to unmask and become honest to the self.’
Lee expresses such emotions through her body. She moves her hands and feet the way her body wants, talks about the things that her mouth craved for, leave notes on her feelings and thoughts, and collects the objects that caught her eyes. These behaviors are not subordinated to social standards, common ideas, or logical thinking; they are only for clear and plain expression of the self, that is, her body moves and talks as she wants.
 
2.
In spring 2009 at the Munhwailbo Gallery, the artist built a rectangular space by connecting white gauze. It was fairly large for a person to go inside, and the ceiling of the space was opened up. Although the structure may seem somewhat lax due to the weakness of the gauze, in the other perspective, it was soft and flexible so that people could even furtively look inside from the exterior part of it. It was not at all blocked or fixed, but created a responsive space where the inner and outer could meet and become blended. The place was named <I Love You>. Lee scatted several objects on the floor or attached them on the wall with pins. They were mainly related to the food she frequently had: tempting goods like cracker bags, beverage cans, or packing vinyl – white or transparent packages were favored the most. There were also boxes in which things that she had naturally obtained during her trips were piled up. One by one, Lee recalls about the sentiment she had felt while she traveled around through each of the objects. After she had finished building basic structures, she stayed in that place and continued on adding more things during the exhibition period.
In fall 2009, at the gallery in Seoul National University, Lee again created a room with white paper screens, again with the opened up ceiling. As was in the last exhibition, the space was half-transparent. Inside the structure, the artist lied down, idled, talked, and sang as much as she wished. She videotaped everything, and played it at one side of exhibition hall. Moreover, she showed to the public for the first time her drawings and writings done in snatches of her time inside the space. The title of the work was <Live As You Are>.

3.
The theme of the current exhibition is ‘rest’. Lee’s first goal is to create cozy environment where she could literally take rest for herself. Just like she had built private spaces in her former exhibitions, this time again, she turned the exhibition hall into a room. From one week before the opening, she started to bring things she liked or were necessary for the exhibition such as notebooks, thread, boxes, flowerpots, a sofa, chairs, a refrigerator, and amps.
Lee plans to carry on arranging new activities even after the opening. She is going to watch movies, invite friends and treat them with simple dish, and shout to the utmost using the amps. Certainly, all of these activities will be done for her, and she will eventually be able to take rest to the full extent.

4.
The artist’s words are organized in almost thirty notebooks. Lee cut and pasted the memos that she ordinarily made on those notebooks depending on their subjects: ‘Frankly Speaking’, ‘I Like It’, ‘My Hopes’, ‘Self Image’, ‘You’, ‘Taste, Flavor’, etc. Simultaneously, she suspended down the thread from the ceiling with masking tapes, and dangled some notes at the end of each thread. Thread is light and weak material that easily flutters away even by a minute wind. Masking tape is also temporary; it tends to come off and change form no matter how strongly it was fixed. As in the last works, there are objects with embedded memories from her voyage inside the boxes. One interesting point of the present exhibition is the flowerpots. The artist pays attention to the plants’ life force. She not only wants to acquire positive energy from them but also attempts to share it with others. It reminds of us an ordinary fact that nature and human breathe and live together.
Although Lee’s works aim to construct her own personal space, they are by no means disconnected or exclusive of others; the inner and outer permeate through each other in the space created by paper screen and gauze, her written notes and collected objects bridge with the feelings of others, her plants suggest the communication between nature and human, and her unique way of unfolding the exhibition designates the artist’s open attitude.
 
5.
The present exhibition possibly is a selfish one thoroughly for the artist herself. Yet, it may be unreasonable to say that a person, who does not know, love, and value himself well enough, can love, and take care of others. The consideration for others could begin only when we accept ourselves the way we are, and earnestly contemplate about who we actually are. It would be the genuine ‘solicitude for the self.’
 
Han-seung Ryu (Curator, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea)