Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter (3) ‘Nabi 104’ by artist Jeong-Lok LEE
2016-03-21 l Hit 1295
Viewing the Front Page Artwork of the Newsletter
(3) ‘Nabi 104’ by artist Jeong-Lok LEE
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Artist Jeong-Lok LEE, who has been talking about the origins of the world through his series of work, ‘Tree of Life’, ‘Private Sacred Place’, and ‘Decoding Scape’, recently released a new series, ‘Nabi’. The work impressively depicts illuminated butterflies flying over water with a background of mysterious, natural scenery.
In 2014, Gwangju Museum of Art implemented a residency program with Shanghai Himalaya Museum, run by Zendai Group from China, to enhance the exchange between the two museums. Artist Jeong-Lok LEE was chosen to be the artist-in-residence of the program and stayed in Shanghai for four months, creating various pieces with Shanghai as a backdrop. The work, ‘Nabi 104’, was one of the pieces created during the residency and was shot in Zhujiajiao, also called Eastern Venice, in Shanghai.
His work seems like the result of CG effects. However, if you look closely at the production processes, you can see that it takes a very long time and a huge effort to create the work. First, the artist had to find the proper location for his work, then picked a sunny day, and exposed the camera for a long time. After the sunset, he took a boat and moved around the water with specially produced, butterfly-shaped, light-emitting devices, using them to illuminate the scene. It produced an illusory image of glowing butterflies flying over the water.
 An image of the artist Jeong-Lok LEE’s foremost work, ‘Tree of Life#1-3’, 2009, Pigment print, 75 x 100 cm. |
After the artist discovered the location for his work, he waited until the right moment arrived. He has said that he feels a certain energy, which cannot be described in words, while waiting for this moment. He proves through his photographs that something we cannot see exists somewhere.
The artist Jeong-Lok LEE’s work, ‘Mythical Landscape’, embodies glittering seeds, and his work, ‘Private Sacred Place’, reveals the invisible vitality of nature. Then the artist brought his concepts to the next level and focused on the language of nature. He insists that landscapes have their own language, but they cannot voice it, since they do not have mouths to express themselves. He believes the landscape communicates with codes (encoding) and that his work cracks these codes (decoding). The series of work, ‘Decoding Scape’, was made following this mode of thinking.
In the series of work described above, the artist introduced symbols. He decided to feature a shape in his next project and decided on the shape of ‘a butterfly’, which is known as a messenger between this world and the other, as well as a symbol for the soul. He created the series of work, ‘Nabi’, using butterfly-shaped flashlights that he made by himself. One interesting fact about this piece is that he used the word, ‘Nabi’, which means ‘butterfly’ in Korean, instead of using the English word, ‘A Butterfly,’ as the title.
The artist said, “In Korean, ‘Nabi’ means a butterfly, a flying insect, but in Hebrew, the pronunciation of Nabi signifies ‘a prophet’. I chose ‘Nabi’ as the title not only to signify the shape, but also to express the origin.”
The artist recently moved to Gwangju, his hometown and the location of his first studio, where he continues his work.
2016. 3. 31 ⓒKorean Artist Project
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