LEE Seung Ae: The Wanderer

ARARIO GALLERY Seoul will be hosting LEE Seung Ae’s solo exhibition The Wanderer from July 12 to August 19, 2023.The artist LEE has been active for the past 19 years based in South Korea and London, continuing her prolific art practice through various domestic and international museums, galleries, and biennales. The exhibition The Wanderer is a comprehensive show, encompassing years of work variations intertwined with themes such as 'light' and 'soul', including the piece The Wanderer (2023) that was recently presented at the Gwangju Biennale. In this exhibition, the artist presents a total of 11 pieces across the B1, 1st, and 3rd floors of the Gallery. The exhibition consists of new drawing animations The Wanderer I, II (2023), collage drawing series Distant Room (2021-2) which depicts immaterial elements through the properties of graphite, and the drawing animation Distant Room (2021) that captures the 'dimension of boundaries'.

Artist LEE Seung Ae(b. 1979) acquires the concept of artwork as a fluid and extended dimension possessing time and space, connecting it with the process of conveying 'transcendental experiences' and 'memories', rather than converging on a single fixed screen or unit. Especially during the recent pandemic when everything was blocked off and she had to perceive the experience of real life (the real) solely through online, coupled with the sense of absence and loss she felt during a similar period when she had to say goodbye to a loved one, she symbolizes a dimension beyond reality. In other words, her aesthetic practice, which accompanies the understanding and interpretation of unclear boundaries, is projected through 'The Wanderer', which extends through light, sound, and traces, though its form cannot be known.

Upon entering the first-floor exhibition space, organic sounds imbued with nature such as water, wind, fire, and smoke echo in the empty space. Across three walls of the exhibition hall, the artist's drawing animations The Wanderer I, II (2023) unfold. The Wanderer is a work that focuses on the act of washing away the pain of loss, using as motifs the 'ritual of washing', a ritual that comforts the wounds and pain of the dead, and the 'path-clearing' part that wishes for rebirth in paradise.

Especially, The Wanderer I constructs the figure of 'The Wanderer' through a complicated weave of human arms, legs, and faces using paper props and various tools that can be seen at the scene of consolation, rooted in shamanistic beliefs. Simultaneously, it recalls the process of 'graphite', the primary material of the work, burning through friction with paper, yet being reborn anew on the paper. This conjures a cyclical process, thereby intertwining the inevitability of the work and the medium.

Distant Room (2022), located on the B1 level of the gallery, is an animated version and sequel to the drawing series Distant Room (2021-2) installed on the third floor. All objects appearing in the Distant Room provide an ambiguous feeling of being somewhere in suspension, rather than stably situated. This work was created based on the artist's experience during the pandemic period when, from her studio in London, she had to navigate the process of someone else organizing her belongings through an online medium. The artist sensitively responds to the chaos between reality and memory, and the disconnection with the actual space beyond the screen, arranging the intermixed virtual landscape into a new system.

Additionally, on the third floor, the collage drawing series Distant Room (2021-2022), The Room (2023), and the collage mural The Wanderer III are jointly introduced. The mural showcases a vague shape composed of multiple images as various materials appearing throughout the exhibition undergo slight modifications. The frottage technique, in particular, leads the physical uniqueness of graphite and the sculptural expressions containing time and space, aligning with the artist's methodological expression that transcends the separation of boundaries such as inside and outside, virtual and real, past and future.

LEE Seung Ae has held her first solo exhibition at the Do Art Gallery in 2006, followed by others at the Korean Cultural Centre UK (London, UK) in 2018, Amado Art Space (Seoul, South Korea), de Art Center (Beijing, China), Christine Park Gallery (New York, USA), Marlborough Fine Art (London, UK) in 2017, Doosan Gallery (New York, USA) in 2011, and ARARIO GALLERY Seoul (Seoul, Korea) in 2008. LEE has also participated in the 14th Gwangju Biennale (Gwangju, Korea) in 2023, and numerous group exhibitions at venues such as ARARIO GALLERY (Cheonan, Korea) in 2020, Jinan International Biennale (Jinan, China), Palazzo Ca’Zanardi (Venice, Italy) in 2017, Dyson Gallery (London, UK) & Art Dubai (Dubai, UAE) in 2016. The artist was awarded the Valerie Beston Artist's Award (London, UK) in 2016 and was selected as a Gucci Young Artist (Seoul, Korea) in 2013.