Rising of the Roots

ESSAY

By Lee Leenam Artist

Chinese Paintings by Media Art

LED TV 6min 30sec 2010

Plato divided this world into the idea (original), reality (the copy), and simulacrum (copy of the copy). As we can see from the dictionary definition of simulacre, “a philosophical concept referring to all events in the universe that are generated in an instant and then vanish, or reproduction without self-identity,” this concept of the world is based on the premise that “there is no perfect representation.” This is because it is difficult to wholly capture internal psychological changes by copying an externally visible form.

In contrast, under his “ontology of the event” the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze described simulacrum as “the individual events that can bring change and give meaning to human life,” in this way imbuing the concept with great value. Jean Baudrillard, another French philosopher, took this idea a step further, saying that “the copied image replaces reality,” and that “when there is no longer any reality to copy hyperreality, a simulation of reality more real than the real, is generated.” He argued for the existence of another identity different to the original that surpasses simple imitation, stressing representation as the substitution of reality as a characteristic of modern society.

Kim Hongdo, Bamboo Paintings

LED TV 6min 9sec 2013

In this sense, these definitions are inherent in my works, starting with Plato’s argument that the more images are reproduced, the more removed they become from the original, and encompassing Baudrillard’s concept of copied images that can substitute for the real.

After majoring in sculpture at university I had the opportunity to teach an animation course. I watched the students working with a video editing program and their work seemed to be full of life, especially so considering I had worked in sculpture. Those were the days when my head was filled with thoughts of how to stop viewers from passing by artworks on display and make them look at it.

For me, the frozen moment given motion thanks to digital technology was as attractive as if it had been given life. So, to make viewers stop in their tracks, I started to focus on digital technology, which enables us to turn imagination into reality.

In 2004 I began a series of remediation works borrowing from masterpieces of Korean art. Taking Painting of Bamboo by Kim Hongdo as my subject, I sought to maximize the energy and vitality of traditional Eastern painting using video editing technology; the work of digitally reinterpreting classical masterpieces was like breathing life into paintings that had been caught on the picture plane, gradually losing their light.

I began to concentrate on remediation work in 2006. That was the year I produced one of my major works, Eight Digital Panel Folding Screen I. To the gentle strains of the gayageum (12-string zither) a butterfly from Heo Ryeon’s Plum Blossoms flies on the wind to Heo Baekryeon’s Ink Bamboo Painting. The butterflies in Flowers and Butterflies by Nam Gyeu, who was such a specialist in the subject that he was nicknamed Nam Nabi (nabi meaning “butterfly”), suddenly flutter their wings and flit lightly over to Heo Baekryeon’s Landscape. Through this method of working I realized that visitors would stop to look at my works—and for longer than the five minutes that art historian Daniel Arasse hoped ordinary visitors would invest in looking at a masterpiece. In terms of art appreciation, this was a revolution.

The paintings of Jeong Seon appear frequently in my works. An artist of the late Joseon period, Jeong Seon’s name is well-known as the pioneer of a new field that was called trueview landscape, that is, realistic landscapes painted from life. I chose him because of his wide popular appeal. There are many wonderful traditional works but to reach out to the public and make them stop and look at an artwork, I felt I had to reinterpret works that they are familiar with.

New-Geumgangjeondo is Jeong Seon’s Complete View of Geumgangsan Mountain with motion added to it. Peaceful Geumgangsan Mountain, a symbol of scenic beauty, has regrettably become a battlefield with the passage of 300 years since the old masterpiece was painted. The still landscape in the old painting is the same but as time has passed and people have changed the spatial context has also become diversified. I wanted to show Geumgangsan Mountain, which has become symbolic of the site of South-North confrontation, inside the flow of history and according to changes in the political and social situation all in one picture plane, like a movie.

New-Geumgangjeondo

LED TV 7min 10sec 2009

New-Danballyeong Mangeumgang is a view of the mountain scenery as seen by Jeong Seon, which prompts thought on the significance of how people see Geumgangsan Mountain today. In the reality of a divided nation, Geumgangsan Mountain makes us feel the pain of not being able to approach it. In the midst of busily working cranes and urban construction projects, the mountain seems very far away. When will we be able to contemplate Geumgangsan Mountain from the Danballyeong Pass, just as Jeong Seon did in the past? I wanted to plant even the smallest seed of hope in the cable car coming toward us from Geumgangsan Mountain far away.

New-Danballyeong Mangeumgang

LED TV 6min 2017

Viewing the Geumgangsan Mountain from Danballyeong Pass

Joseon Dynasty, 1711 / By Jeong Seon / Color on silk / National Museum of Korea

In both New-Geumgangjeondo and New-Danballyeong Mangeumgang not only have ordinary buildings and scenery in Korea been borrowed for the expression of modern civilization but also scenes from other countries (the Eiffel Tower for example). In the virtual space that constitutes the landscape I sought to make past time and present time exist together and to project onto the work the coexistence of various cultures that have transcended barriers between countries.

In the virtual space that I created, past and present, two sets of time, simultaneously flow together. This makes me wonder— if our lives move forward to the state where past and present coexist will I encounter the world that I have imagined? Digital technology has brought rapid change to contemporary society. It is an integral part of our everyday lives and to an even greater extent media art will reflect and project modern civilization. In a civilized society where the digital virtual world and reality coexist it is necessary for us to ask what values that human beings should be pursuing.

Eight Digital Panel Folding Screen I

LED TV × 8 5min 2007

About the author

Born in 1969 in Damyang, Jeollanam-do, Lee Leenam fuses digital technology with masterpieces of Western and Eastern art, working from his studio in Gwangju, near his hometown. After majoring in sculpture at Chosun University and getting his master’s degree in fine arts there, he received his Ph.D. in video art at Yonsei University Graduate School of Communication and the Arts as well as a Ph.D. in fine arts at Chosun University. In 2005 he received both the Artist of the Year Award and the Young Artist of the Year Award as well as a slew of other honors, and was cited as the media artist to follow in the steps of Nam June Paik. Lee has participated in various large Biennale exhibitions and last year presented works made in collaboration with LG Electronics at ISE (Integrated Systems Europe) in Amsterdam. His works are in the collections of the Zebrastraat Art Center in Belgium, the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and the Suning Art Museum in Shanghai, and also on display in the Chinese Art Gallery, part of the World Art Gallery on the third floor of the National Museum of Korea.