Introduction to Exhibition

Choi Jung Sun Art Historian

The believers say there is a guardian angel to everybody as if nature shows a different color to each one of us. It is the Archangel Raphael who began to accompany artist Heang-Gyun Lee ever since he converted to Christianity. In the Bible Raphael started the long journey with Tobias, protecting and guiding him and became the messenger of healing for him. The exhibition is an occasion that the Archangel Raphael and Heang-Gyun lee prepared for those who are tired and hurt in our everyday life. Sculpture performance, which is rarely done by artists, is an act of separating the artist and the spectators from the secular affairs and purifying them. It is a kind of a religious ceremony to consecrate his work he took pains to make to God. To Heang-Gyun Lee, who for the art of sculpture, worked willingly as a labor in the stone factory and foundry, the workshop is the sacred workplace God had given to man as well as he earned his livelihood where he began and finish a day full fo faith. When he cuts and carves rough stones, he adds the touch of his heart to nature that God has given so that he proposes the meeting of man and art. It is a meeting of stones with different grains and colors, as well as of soft marvel and cold bronze. The meeting of heterogeneous materials in his works does not nook unfamiliar probably because of his technical skills and hard work. But it also show the work of his heart and disposition. In order to add goodness to the human heart, he weaves in his work the family and religion into one. So he expects that the stones could present good heart to people and become something for them to approach anytime easily, comfortably, and gently. The exhibition show the story of love he hopes and wishes to achieve within the faith he chose.

Faith

Jesus in agony with the crown of thorns abandoned all his anguish and lay down. The artist, whose meeting with Catholicism has become a turning point, does not let us dream resurrection just with the represented figure of Jesus on the cross. Through the light glimmering under the figure of Jesus, he is converting the shadow of death into life energy. At the moment when life and death intersect with each other, we behold with our own eyes the nature of Jesus who has both humanity and divinity. If one wants something with a sincere heart, the hand gives birth to earnestness. The hands of the husband and wife praying with their skin visible must have come from earnestness. Heang-Gyun Lee finished the earnestness in the work The Holy Family with the marks of chisel and time engraved one ny one on the stone. And the earnestness continues to the Road to Golgotha. In the figures with serene and gentle smile, the artist gave expression to the spirit of martyrdom that was kept by paying for the life. The hands of saints quietly tell us of all these facts that were derived from the light of the heaven.

Hope

Raphael is the baptismal name of Heang-gyun Lee. The artist newlyborn into a Catholic hopes to be an angel. He is a father who took time to carve the stone to make a toy horse for his son. but he is also a cherub who is struggling to fulfil the calling of the archangel without knowing the toil. Sometimes the angel dreams the hope upon the marble stone soft as cushion, with the high pedestal of many years. Also, the female for him is a lovely being who most sensitively responds to the artistic sensibility like the angel who has become the religious self-portrait of the artist. By effectively giving vivid life to the texture and color of divergent stones, the girl and woman in the subdued aurora pink carry the aesthetics of harmony. And the woman with the hair wavering in the breeze has become his old lover who arouses the sensibility of art nouveau, yet at the same time, makes him sing the lyrical love song inadvertently.

Love

The chaste Mary replied to the good news the Archangel Gabriel announced. As if the bee loves the flower, she was born to be he mother with her love for humanity. We do not need a lengthy explanation for the love of the mother and son, lovers, and family who look at one place or gaze at each other sharing their thought. In the works of Heang-Gyun Lee, we see homely love with no superfluity. It originated from the simplified line and shapes that his sculpture purses, and at the same time is the result of sculptural effort trying to be faithful to the nature of stone. The exhibition is the first one showing the rebirth of the work with the help of religious sensibility of Heang-Gyun Lee, the artist who fell in love with the stone

Appeared Soul’s Evolution as Realistic Sculpture

KHO, Chung-Hwan(Art Critic)

Nonexistence of Speculation

This word’s superficial meaning is there is no thinking. But its true meaning is not a simple passive situation that lack of thinking. It is practice and hint of positive and active behavior which is making empty thinking. It could be understood that involving these things recognition of one’s ignorance(Socrates), when I know, recognize knowing, when I don’t know, recognize unknowing(Confucius), act of vacate oneself(Buddhism) etc.

Specially, in Buddhism, act of vacate oneself obtains as a ritual act to get real self. Then, what should we empty to acquire real self. They are socialized self, systematized self, trained and subordinated self my morality, ethics and custom that result of artificial knowledge, and they are restrict real self. The fact makes reconsideration even general thought about humanism. Therefore, meaning of the word ‘human’ should be accepted as recovery of natural human that before be socialized, before be systematized, before be practiced.

Lee, Heang-Gyun realizes this theme as human body sculpture which is alike half-seated contemplative Maitreya(our version about Rodin’s Le Penseur), huge headlike sculpture that makes imagination of megalithic culture of Stone Henge. But there is no head in body sculpture, and headlike sculpture’s inside is digged. Through this, he expresses practice logic of none speculation that empty self paradoxically. This comes out through making comparison between realistic sculpture about body with stylized and abstracted sculpture about head. And from this, true speculation, true knowledge(wisdom) and change of true meditate on myself are experienced.

Transmigration

There is recognition about changing existence in this word. In other word, every existence is not fixing and unchanging individual. It is changed, transmuted, spoil and decay. And most of all, It circulates. In particular, heterogeneous moments that constitute existence are connected each other. It nos not divided and the moments couldn’t be parted like Mobius strip.

Lee, Heang-Gyun makes shape of transmigrating existence’s secret through a slowly moving and turning skeleton, and body sculpture with giant spindle as the centroid. At this time, the centroid appears as a form a big nipple. It suggests a life’s fountain of itself, the origin of existence and the huge womb(matrix) as the center of the universe. Thus, a skeleton and a baby are compared by the centroid of life’s fountain. Then , skeleton and a baby exist as independent individuals at first, but each shape is overlapped as the whole sculpture’s returning. A skeleton and a baby overlap and circulate, furthermore, it comes out as the same status. In here, a skeleton means death and a baby means life. Like this, heterogenetic two moments which looks like distinguished in a consciousness layer meet together in a unconsciousness layer. Freud thought unconsciousness is more essential thing than consciousness, and impulse about life and death are intersect in the unconsciousness layer, The other side, Georges Bataille saw a human’s limit in interruption of Eros(like) and Thanatos(death), and he saw possibility that overcomes the limit and recovers the whole human being from connecting cut discontinuity and recovering continuity. This is going through oriental speculation about transmigration, it has mutual understanding with ontological recognition which is showed up on Lee, Heang-Gyun’s sculpture as the theme ‘transmigration’.

Transmigration, Living together

The theme awareness which is appeared by transmigration could be changed to other sculpture. The artist makes form with huge granite, makes a pair sculpture that disinterred inside. The form makes imagination of the Great Absolute in Chinese philosophy pattern which is compared Yin and Yang. The theme awareness of transmigration that expressed through narrative method is magnified translated as the Great Absolute in Chinese philosophy’s symbolic form which is put on Yin and Yang’s mutuality relationship or interaction. Here, Yin means a principle existence, Yang means existence’s configuration that appeals the theory. In conclusion, there is no Yang without Yin, there is no Yin without Yang. Meaning of living together that showed up in the theme appeals dualistic secret meaning of existence, and manifests sympathy of gyrate transmigration in life and death. It should be understood as reflection of the artist’s intention that trying to suture different changes and trying to repair first condition of existence(a whole human being, true self, oneself).

The artist put in water on digged empty space of sculpture, it looks like a water tank. Actually, water seems like transmigration that makes stream with foreign moment, living together, configuration of circulation, true reconciliation and recovering moment. The artist floats a kind of butterfly shapes model in water tank. The model that inside is digged and the outside is sutured is floated on water, it is realization of water sculpture by flotage. This model expressed as floating rock on water, betraying rock against gravity, lightly moving rock as like a leaf, it makes reconsideration of fixed concept and preconception. Whit this, the artist introduces power into the model and realizes a kind of kinetic sculpture. The artist draws in a play element through moving sculpture by borrowing of power and a magnet that pushes out each other, so he extends the category of sculpture.

Ring of Life

The artist connects a great hand’s figure with continuously connected ring as a medium and a crouched baby like embryo to one of the ring. A baby is connected to ring, the ring is connected to a hand. The baby hints existence, and the ring hints a chain of DNA that dedices for hereby form and nature of existence, And a hand reminds existence of the God(or definite unconsciousness than consciousness) which is not grabbed by human’s sense. So, biological fact is attached on ontological recognition about human being that comes up as transmigration, circulation and living together. But at this time, the biological chain is begun by God’s hand we can’t see as well. Through this, the artist satirizes worldly knowledge which is appeared by human cloning and gene engineering, and he tells that ontological truth is before than scientific truth. Like this, Lee, Heang-Gyun makes shape the theme consciousness that ‘chain of life’ in narrative way of expresses as form of performance. He penetrates a hole with a rock drill on surface of huge rough granite stone, divides rough stone into pieces with a kind of lever. And he develops the space modeling or space composition with reconstruction way that lifting split pieces using a forklift. Each piece of stone as parts of this work that shows at the spot on exhibition day suggests an opportunity of life, act and process of reconstructing abstract a principle of living together that gestates real life with joining of the opportunity.

This work show a quite different approaching way from artist’s other works which are expressed as realistic sculpture. In a way, this work enlarges sculpture’s category into space organization that comes out as emphasis organic relation for physiological parts and parts, parts and the whole which extracts the whole shape through reorganize its parts, and into performance(which has physiological difference from traditional sclupture) that emphasized the actual sport and one time event.

Evolution of Soul

LEE, Heang_Gyun calls the main theme that penetrates recent works ‘evolution of soul’. It is merging minor theme which is expressed as non possession, transmigration, living together and ring of life into a big frame into a big frame. At least, in the artist’s theme awareness, developed soul doesn’t mean socialized, systematized and civilized human being. Artist aims human being that before socialized, before systematized, before civilized instead. With this, artist hopes recovery of the whole and ontological human being. Also, evolution of souls can’t be seized with temporal knowledge that comes out biological true and scientific true, it can be adopted when the knowledge empty. Artist deliveries these ontological cognizance with persuasive power as fresh description and narration that seems be caught by a hand which puts foundation of tradition of realistic sculpture, and symbolic grammar that implied the description.

Exhibition of the Art Works of Lee Haeng-Kyun

Realistic Monument, created by Force and Skills and Refinement

Different from other genres, the sculpture requires the patience. In the other word, as the iron becomes stronger by repeated heating, hammering and soaking in water, the sculptors can be created by long discipline. Even with natural talents the efforts of cracking their own egg are to be advanced.

Lee is a born worker. For him the sculpture is just his daily life. In one word, he doesn’t pretend to be an artist. The evaluation of his works as a work of art is another issue beyond his hands. It may be so. He devotes himself to execute his given daily task. At least we cannot perceive the ostentation of himself as an artist in his works. They are the results from his working at the price of labors. And he adapts himself to those results.

He avoids the immediate description of formal beauty of body. It is from the fact that the pure nude works are not found in his. Of course, the pure nude work enters sometimes the stage. In that case, however, the authentic purity of the body is not his attractive material. It is just his formative approach that prefers the contents to forms. Nevertheless, the human body was minutely described as based on the exact anatomy. There is no other request than realistic description. Thus it was not accidental that he chose person’s hand as his main means of working.

His recent works are expressed in realistic forms if any. It is based on his strong belief that the realistic description of form is the essential force of the sculpture. Except for his realistic technique to push his work to the extreme, there is no idea or thought to be established. It is the precise and realistic technique realized by the intense mastership that he could be positioned in the Korea sculpture world.

We can witness his strong belief by saying that he has the pride as a most able student of Kang, Kwan-Wook who opened up an area of the Korean realistic sculpture. It is true. The power of realistic description doesn’t end simply in its functional completion. The more precise the technique is, the higher refined the beauty of form becomes. In his works, we can perceive the refinement realizing the sense of beauty forward the formative as beyond simple manual functionality.

Among his works, trap of love and hatred (man>woman), trap of love and hatred (man<woman) Two Me’s and Negation of thinking system were expressed by the parallel location of two bodies or by the introduction of the different materials of complex structure such as wood or stone and then inquired the inner world of the personality by the complex structure. It results in inquiring the complexity of men’s psychological world with double-minded or complex thinking functions. As shown in his works, he throws a light on the inner world of human body. He pays attention to the fact that the outside appearance such as movement and facial impression are just the expression of the inner world of men.

Thus, he follows the logic that the works of form is that the mind and sentiment employ the body. It is his own process to confirm the fact that there is no external form without connection to inner world. By understanding the principle of body dominated by mind and sentiment, he secures the formative necessity.

The series of works Happiness Anger Love and Pleasure ‘喜’ ‘怒’ ‘愛’ ‘樂’(희노애락) reflect clearly his vision. He wants to show expressly the facial impression indicated by the sentiment. It is very interesting to replace Sadness by Love. Thus he focuses on the concrete and real world instead of sentimental one like paintings. These works focused on the sentimental expression show the merit of the cubic existence occupying the real space. By describing the extreme sentiments in realistic way, the visual image was persuasively strengthened.

Meanwhile, the Family S, Our family and Kkubi in form of portraits are new materials concerned by him. The natural expression and appearance of these works can be compared with the detailed description of paintings. In some way, they are deeply attractive with realistic form against the paintings with one touch. But the degree of technical completion is to be supported in the portrait work with stone.

The detailed description in portrait sculpture can be realized by his technique to expand the expression area. Anyway, his thought is based on settling the sculpture in the portrait form as well as the paintings. There are, however, the traditional ways of portrait as the form of memorial sculpture but they are in strict format and cannot overcome it. In other words, the sculpture of portrait in natural expression and posture focusing on the reality as their existence is absolutely required.

Here, the relieves, Our family and Sisyphos, are newly concerned by him. In reality they are treated as the memorial sculpture and not studied in positive way. As shown in Rodin’s Door of the hell, the efficiency and value of the relief has many programmatic applications. He searches for the possibility of the sculpture of portrait.

This time, he paralleled his work with the abstract work on the theme of Dustbin. They are derived from the works of Anger, Love and Trap of love and hatred. They are expressed by the pieces of marble and wires put in concrete form of cylinder. This work is the environment-friendly and has the position of independent abstractness. It is very characteristic that the simple idea is connected to the real sculpture.

The sense of the simplification and distortion of human body is exceptional. It has the sense of beautiful proportionality. Therefore, when this domain is focused on, the unique formativeness can be realized. He is so talented and has many missions. But since he has the time and force to express himself in him, I expect that his artistic talents will be in full bloom under various views.

Shin, Hang-Sup (Critic of Art)

Stone & Life, Sculptor of Thoughtness

Seok-Won Jang(an art critic, a professor in Chonnma National University)

A sculptor who has dealt with stones for about 20 years. He became a heavy and reliable existence like stone. The works such as ‘family’, ‘marriage’, ‘reading girl’ which he recently exhibited and made by mixing marble with bronze and marble with granite show popularity and marketability required by gallery space but he still insists his world in sculpture.

He showed his art world with sculpted works via his private exhibition before. The work like ‘both of me’ in 2003 described the me made of obsidian which is very hard, that is the person who thinks by standing with two feet and the person who stands upside down described anatomically. Such two persons are same ‘me’, are not separated, and are contradict. The work implies the matter and thought which he wanted to show as a sculpture. ‘Thoughtlessness’ series in 2006 advance the option for the thought. Healthy man’s body located like headless thinking Buddhist image or thinking person and shape of abstracted face with vacant brain space are the clues that his sculpture transfers to the invisible matter, ‘thoughtness’ beyond mass, plasticity, or visual dimension. His recent work, ‘life-city’ shows the urban feature emitting LED lights between the egg shaped broken gaps. It’s the city, the stone, and the concept. He continues to the experiment which the stone turns into object and concept beyond morphological illusion as a stone. ‘Floating island’ in 2005 is also designed that the stone on the water continues to be floating by making magnet to work with the current. He uses stones but he wants to avoid them.

Hang-Gyun Lee still experiments his own sculptures. In case of making ‘reading woman’ by mixing stone and bronze, he emphasized modelled skill of person which can be described with the material of bronze while added the sense of coarse and heavy material, the stone. Of course, such work shows his efforts to approach to the public. For his life, the sculpture is the reality. He had to continue the works endlessly, which was a true meaning of arts. Labor, technology, and thoughtness which should be given to the work were the necessary condition under working process and at the same time, they were elements to hinder the consistency. The truth which the sculptor wants to show and the touching which transfers such truth are still weakly experimental. One day, when such part will explode like volcano, all thoughtness, technology, and labor will prevail appreciating people and the sculptor himself like a flash light.

During 20 years, he has positioned as a great sculptor learnt from his great masters such as Gwan-Wook Gang, Roe-Jin Jeon, and Young-Won Kim. His works imply parts of inspirations and effects which were given by his masters. However, he pursues his own arts. He advances more & more firmly and diligently. However, he hopes to face the essential of matter more modestly and frankly.

He carved his family to flat stone with relief form. Once carved shape will be remained forever like the stone itself. Stone means the constancy with its hardness and continuity. As if the feeling of this moment would survive forever to its original spot… Stone language and senses & thoughtness which will be implied between the stone languages would be left as another things. What can we obtain from combination and incompatibility among them? Can we feel the arts within such delicate relation and difference?

Purity is not the first arts proposition any more. However, still arts have to show. Life and our era including purity… Now, all of us have to tell. About the sculptures or about arts… And also about the artist making such work and his family… Whether you hear or not such sounds, these are becoming arts tide flowing across our era.