What meaning do true artists have in contemporary society? How should we understand and judge their extremely irrational, illogical perspectives? – when seeing them from the viewpoint of a capitalistic market economy. How can we ultimately define their identity and status in society? These questions present clues to Changhoon Lee’s work prior to describing his art. I’d like to share an interest in knowing our curiosity, and what living and thinking as an artist is like through Lee’s work.

The first work I would like to introduce herewith is a video-work with the long title, 1 Frame-Life and Death, Life Is Beautiful, Still Life, The Meaning of Life, Life with Father, My Life in Pink, The Puppetmaster, Life, The Life of Oharu, displaying nine films from nine countries that address the theme of life. The presentation is made in an artistic way, not an ordinary manner. It is known that approximately 29 frames are used for one second of a film; and over 156,000 frames in total are required for a film with a running time of 90-95 minutes. In this work however, we are able to sense an extremely minute movement in dim motion pictures.

The second work I want to introduce is the sound work Either Very Long or Short. Each side of an LP can play for around 25-30 minutes. This work has an LP of Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 play for one day (24 hours). What’s the intent here, of extending about 30 minutes to 24 hours? Perhaps to represent his empathy toward the work mentioned above? One who underwent a moment felt over a tremendously long period may sympathize with this. The third work is Lost One’s Way-Sweet Story whose subject matter is a road sign common to roads in Korea. The work-setting this strange object is used for, indicating direction in a museum, is a metaphor for an individual drifting in society, confrontations of social and individual values and norms, and the future of an unclear life between reality and ideal.

In the fourth work a LED signboard reading “PARADISE” is set on the rooftop of the museum. “PARADISE” can be clearly read during the day, but the signboard is read as “PARA S” at night as “DIE” is invisible. When considering that paradise is an ideal world beyond reality, this work is symbolic of the fact that countless days and nights form a whole life, the gap between reality and ideal, and something invaluable like a mirage appearing during daytime, that disappears at night, and the double-sidedness and ambiguity of life. The last work is CV, an abbreviation of curriculum vitae. In this work the artist describes his artistic career with an overlapped single line. As the initial part is years, they are vaguely visible, but the middle part appears black as numerous career descriptions overlap. The only information viewers can recognize is the last part indicating the artist held an exhibition in an unknown city in Germany.
- Sungjin Son, Curator of Seoul Olympic Museum of Art

*image (left)
Lost One's Way - Sweet Story, 2011
HD, 11'52"
© Chang Hoon Lee
Coutesy of SOMA Museum of Art