Lee Lee Nam

Videos

Biography

Lee Lee Name, born in Damyang County in Korea (b.1969) graduated with a Ph.D. in 2007 at Yongsei University Seoul Korea. believes that video art could express imagination thoroughly and is able to convey more atmosphere and surprises with each variation he chooses, eastern and western objects. His creations of post-modern video artwork are as fictitious as dreams overlapping reality and one's illusions,encompassing both the traditional and modern image.

By videos Lee Lee-Nam is narrating a seeming distant but acquainted, fantastic but logical modern legend. Without any words, we could hear the new world symphony that the artist is looking for. The sound is in the elegant flight of butterflies in a paintingof flowers and birds, the oriole jumping between flowers and shrubs after rain.Audience is thus allowed to infinite imaginations and possibilities extend beyond the monitors without end.

Article

- Hee-rang Kim (Curator,Gwangju Museum of Art)

Revival of a famous picture in cyberspace
Postmodernism's originality, in addition to itsunique creative base, incorporates recent styles, techniques and contemporary methods of expression not the least of which is the use of cyberspace technological advancements. An easily identifiable aspect of postmodernism isthe reworking of famous classical artworks, and the borrowing of partial segments of these images which reworks classical art to be more aligned with modern sensibilities.

This is the case with LEE, Lee Nam's latest work where he introduces new meaning, modification and movement to famous classicalart. Rather than parody traditional works or assume a critical attitude towards the cultural reality of the day, he assimilates his views in an affirmative manner to create a new or different story. The kernel of his revised vision relies on the power of technology and movement.

LEE vests new and vital power into famous classical art by administering technological insertions, and by substituting realistic movement for potential movement of an image for viewing on a screen.His borrowings span past centuries to recent decades. He doesn't pursue far fetched or exaggerated changes but rather subtly conveys the impression his alterations are more an emphasis or extension of the original artist's intent.

Take, for example, Jan Vermeer van Delt's "Girl With A Pearl Earring" where he has added a single teardrop to the maiden's eye. That single tear drop empowers the original with a lyrical depth of sorrow felt by Vermeer van Delt and his servant in their hopelesslove. The viewer directly experiences a subtle hyper-space-time transition that arouses heart felt sympathy for the impossibility of couple's love for each other. LEE's cyberspace embellishments can be further seen with a fly following the butterfly in Shinsaimdang's "Chochungdo", snow in KIM, Hong-do's"Mukjukdo", and a swimmer becoming a fish in Monet's pond all of whichserve to heighten the impact of the artists' original images and introduce anew way of viewing the works.

LEE's creative approach through thehyper-space-time continuum can be likened to the medical act of a doctor arousing an unconscious patient from a physical surgical operation. The vitality of his art not only gives comment to the spirit of the original classical images but also revives them with new meaning and imbues them with contemporary commentary.

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