soohyunlee.art

I have seen this coming, 2024

I have seen this coming, pencil, pigment and oil on canvas, 182 x 720 cm, 2024
This painting is the chronology of the artist's experiences of unideal situations of care.

The painting depicts the artist's surrealistic physical reactions in unideal situations in care that don't match society's ideal concept of it. Each society's idealized notion of care is very different; thus, the nature of care is impossible to have a solid standard. Therefore, people who challenge themselves to figure out certain connections that don't seem ideal in the standardized norms of care often get shamed for lacking independence and maturity. However, we could highlight these individuals' courage to stick to their desire for care and try to make the unideal situations work out.

The painting consists of several sketches created over two years, based on the artist's experiences of unideal caring situations with different people.

The characters, which were born from those situations, respectively show different surrealistic physical reactions. For example, one's fist embracing the body felt like a heavy floating metal stone that would never touch the other; sometimes, one's body felt intense pain and sexual ecstasy at the same time; sometimes, being ashamed and hopeless of themselves in the journey of different caring situations.
Inspired by the religious mural painting's format, these characters are composed into a panoramic view in a wide-scale painting. Therefore, the painting itself is the chronology of several moments of the characters' pushing the unideal caring situation despite the pain of it while trusting their own power to deal with those situations. These moments were never ideal or perfectly safe; however, through this journey, they were courageous enough to keep sticking to caring for someone as they desired, and these moments in the past stick intimately with our future, allowing us to develop protection for ourselves while not losing the hope and courage to care for others.

I have seen this coming, performance, 975kg handmade powder, 2024

This performance concerns the struggles, efforts, difficulties, and impossibility of setting appropriate boundaries and protection in care. Each performer is instructed, “Make the ideal form of boundary that could protect them.”

Also, performers choose to follow one of the following prompts:

1. Build a shelter.

2. Pray for their past and bless for their future.

3. Build a barrier but still make the river flow.

4. Protect yourself but keep pushing it.

Under these instructions, the performers create different forms with the powder in the exhibition space. The powders are easily breakable and very fragile; however, if the performer finds an appropriate amount of strength and gesture to use the powder, it can become a very strong solid material. The performers bear in mind that their choices will affect the future performers and people in the exhibition space. ( Each performer carefully makes ) This action symbolizes the struggles and efforts for setting an appropriate boundary in care, becoming a generational heritage, and affecting the future generation. Even the current performer looks foolish for trying so hard to form a boundary with such fragile material; the more time goes on, and the more people try, the more the material will become a solid structure.

Soo Hyun Lee