Essay by Jonathan Goodman, Art Critic
In a brief statement, sculptor Eunkyung Lee asserts: “I cast parts of apartment buildings and streets and then relocate them.” The point is to contrast that which is real with that which is fake. In today’s culture, reality is often simulated or virtual. So an appreciation of something real, even in sculpture, where the actuality of an object is foremost, becomes more difficult to discern. By relocating her objects, which are versions of parts of drawers, or dressers, or tiles, Lee offsets our perception of everyday life as it appears to be, and substitutes a made reality that is all the more interesting because of its closeness to something truly actual. As a result, Lee is engaging not only in a game of perception, but also in a metaphysical treatment of physical existence, pursuing a version of things that places the object outside of its real context. This may be slightly unsettling as an abstract philosophy, but it is quite remarkable as a revision of the trust we put into perception.
It is important to remember, though, that Lee is an active sculptor and not a philosopher. One of the strongest aspects of her work is its ability to bring up intellectual questions through the very simple, but highly intelligent decision to recast remnants of things and present them as true in their own right. There is more than a little wit in her doing so. In one interesting work, Lee casts a doorknob and a plate that is part of the door itself; the doorknob is real in the artwork, while the cast of the plate is not. So the reality of the work is mixed between a genuine object and a version of one. As we puzzle out the connection between the two, a bit of humor occurs; our confusion is linked to the appreciation that appearance are not always what they seem. Another sharply intelligent casting of tiles or bricks separated by lines of grouting is placed seemingly on the actual site where the casting was taken. Thus a constructed version of the actual is superimposed on the actual itself. The new version is both different from and the same as its original, providing the audience with a conundrum, namely, how to see the copy as independent in its own right.
What happens when this kind of substitution takes place? Is it an implicit comment on or criticism of society, where imitations have taken over so much of our contemporary experience? We now have virtual reality and reality television shows, in which the experience is manufactured in ways that may be entertaining but are profoundly fake. One of Lee’s most clever pieces is the cast of a columnar support, with the molding and part of the floor included. Lee then moves up the cast on a real support, so that the sculpture’s floor juts out into open air. As a result, the piece, which seems real enough, actually becomes incongruous and even absurd—at least in the sense of common experience. Lee’s nimble tricks result in the contemplation of not only how but also why we take our physical observations for granted, even though our confidence in our perceptions may not be accurate.