Eunhee Lee’s show also celebrates the beauty of repetition, featuring time-consuming Korean lacquerware crafts.
Yunhee Lee achieves with her a perfect marriage between beauty and ceremony Otchil Artifacts Through the demanding techniques of traditional Korean lacquerware, the Korean artist transforms utilitarian objects such as wooden bowls, cups and plates into elegant art pieces, as seen in ‘The Aesthetics of Waiting’, a movable It is a virtual exhibition. Commissioned by the Inco Center in Chennai, it celebrates the exquisite simplicity of Lee’s lacquerware. and its contemporary sensibilities.
art in drying
Make Otchil Objects are a complex, time-consuming craft. Each piece in the exhibit, including the simple plate, has gone through more than 30 creative processes that involve applying thin coats of natural sap to the wooden object, drying and sanding, which is repeated several times.
Complex drying processes in precisely controlled humidity and temperature are necessary. “If I hurry… I may have to go back to the previous process, or to the very beginning!” Lee says of the age-old art.
tiring? off course not. It is this deep involvement in the making work that draws Lee to his craft. The artist studied industrial design at Hong-Ik University College of Art, earned a master’s degree in furniture design, and worked as an industrial designer/lecturer for 20 years. But after realizing that she was “losing her sense of analog touch” or missing out on the physical process of creating, Lee turned to art. Otchil And najonchilgi (nacre lacquerware). Achievements include the UNESCO Prize for Handicrafts in 2008 and exhibits at the Maison und Objet in Paris and the Museum für Lackunst in Münster.
bow down and bloom
His online shows are works from two series whose titles ‘seum’ and ‘pyam’ are derived from the Korean words. The seam, which means ‘to stand’, is expressed through objects that are counter-intuitively inclined silhouettes. Its sophisticated color palette derives from the artist’s “emotional balance, expressed in a combination of wood color”.
The Piyam series – meaning ‘blossom’ – is based on capturing nature. In Lee’s words, the beauty here is “grand but not extravagant, modest but not shabby”.
otchill Items made of wood and lacquer are very durable. “I hope that my work will not only exist as a decoration item, but become something precious that people can use and enjoy,” Lee emphasized. It certainly points to more sustainable ways of living for our used and throwaway plastic culture. While Lee takes orders (routed through these centers), they take about six months to be processed.
View it until November 28 at inkocentre.org, Inkocentre’s virtual gallery, Prism.
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