Lee Lee-nam, reinventor of masterpieces

This is the sixth in a series of interviews with notable artists recommended by the Korean Artist Project, an online platform promoting Korean art. — ED.

By Kwon Mee-yoo

The landscape in late Joseon painter Gang Se-hwang (1713-1791)'s seven panel painting comes alive in the hands of artist Lee Lee-nam. Snow covers mountains and water falls in a cascade, while Jesus walks in the painting bearing a television instead of cross and trees are adorned with Christmas ornaments. This is Lee's latest work "Light for Each Person," an animated digital painting, currently on display at Gana Art Center in Pyeongchang-dong, Seoul.

Media artist Lee is a magician who breathes new life into masterpieces with digital technology. Paintings become animated in his hands as Lee creates further depth in them. In this new solo exhibit titled "Lee Lee-nam: Reborn Light," the 45-year-old artist explores the common ground of human and media art — screen as a body for media art and light as soul.

Lee was a student of sculpture at Gwangju University in southwestern city of Gwangju until he attended a contemporary art course when he was a junior.

1. Lee Lee-nam’s “Why Jesus Christ Shouldered a Television” / Courtesy of Gana Art Center

“It was such an eye-opener for me. I wanted to be a sculptor like Rodin or Michelangelo, but I was fascinated by the endless possibility of contemporary art. The only thing I knew before were stereotypical sculptures, but anything could become art from ready-made objects to garbage in contemporary art,” Lee said at an interview with The Korea Times on Dec. 15. He was busy putting the final touches to his first solo exhibition in four years.

Upon graduation, his interest shifted to “moving images” as he learned about animation and how to draw and edit images with a computer. His earliest animated works were more experimental, but Lee wanted viewers to stay longer in front of his works.

“As an artist, being ostracized is the heaviest misfortune. I want to be recognized by contemporary audiences,” Lee said. “That is why I borrowed famous paintings to create my moving images. It will at least make the viewers pay attention and look at my work closely, thanks to the familiarity of the work I animate.”

Lee Lee-nam’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring — Tear”

Lee’s use of old masterpieces and digital technology became fully recognized when he first introduced his “moving paintings” at the 2006 Seoul International Media Art Biennale. His work, which used Korean folk painter Kim Hong-do’s “Mukjukdo” (bamboo painting) and Claude Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” digitally, was sensational and Lee established himself as a media artist. Now he is often dubbed as the second Paik Nam-june, the late “father of video art.”

However, Lee was never bewildered by state-of-the-art technology. Rather, he views digital technology as offering unlimited potential to expand art forms.

Lee’s new solo exhibition shows where the sculptor-turned-media artist now stands and the direction in which he is heading. The exhibition begins with “The Language of Light,” which projects Korean idioms in Chinese characters onto the back of well-known Greek statue “Venus de Milo.” “The juxtaposition of Oriental letters with Western art emphasizes the need of new light in this era in which humans restrain each other,” Lee explained.

Artist Lee Lee-nam poses next to his sculpture “Alter Egos — Princess Margarita” / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

Lee Lee-nam’s “A Day of Vermeer”

Famous figures in paintings move from canvas to screen and are transformed. Milk coming out from a jug in the hand of Vermeer’s “Milkmaid” cut its way through a screen to another (“A Day of Vermeer”), while Infanta Margarita Teresa in a portrait by Velazquez holds a firecracker as if celebrating her new life (“Alter Egos — Princess Margarita”). Lee also made a life-size sculpture of the Spanish princess and installed it in front of the digital painting, creating a weird sense of space.

As he works mostly with masterpieces across all the ages and countries of the world, Lee collects visual images from his daily life — magazines, newspaper, television, cinema and even Facebook, but he only uses a few.

“It is like having a blind date with an image. If it does not touch my heart, I won’t work with it. But the transformation does not come immediately even if I fall in love with it. I have to keep the image in my mind until the time is ripe,” explained the artist.

He worked with numerous Western paintings as well as traditional Korean paintings. “Western paintings are refined and sophisticated, while oriental paintings have more depth, based on philosophy. It is like the difference between ‘meok’ (Korean ink) and oil paint,” Lee said.

Lee, who has been utilizing new technology to breathe new life into masterpieces, reverted to his major for his latest work “Reborn Light,” which is the same as the exhibition’s title. Lee brought back his sculpting technique to reproduce Michelangelo’s acclaimed Renaissance sculpture which depicts the body of Jesus after the Crucifixion in the lap of his mother Virgin Mary.

In this piece installed at the end of the exhibition, Lee lifted Jesus from Mary’s lap and hung him in the air, as if throwing off all restraints. Exquisitely calculated lighting casts multiple shadows of Jesus and Mary, adding intricacy to the piece. A mirror on the floor shows their interaction and relationship from a different angle.

Lee said reinterpreting “Pieta” was inevitable on his journey to explore the light. “As an artist, I have a desire to work with a beautiful object, not for its religious significance. I wanted to separate Jesus from Mary — some 600 years after its creation — to the light, the true resurrection,” Lee said. “It is a genuine rebirth.”

“The Reborn Light,” another video installation on display, is a blunt summary of the exhibition’s theme. An LED screen showing glaring eyes slowly sinks into water and floats to the air endlessly in a flood of flashlights. “This is literally the resurrection, baptized by ‘Reborn Light,’” Lee said.

The year 2015 will be another milestone for Lee’s career, as he is invited to a special exhibition of the Venice Biennale 2015 entitled “Personal Structures.”

“I feel honored to be invited to this exceptional exhibit. I am planning to introduce something new at Venice,” Lee said, without revealing much detail about his coming work.

In addition to the Venice exhibit, Lee will wander about more countries as his works are going to be displayed at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, the Finnish National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

“Many of these overseas institutions want to showcase my works based on Korean traditional paintings. I think being Korean is part of the strength in my art,” Lee said.