Lee, Haeng soon : Name-Pool

Name-Pool

Written by Lee, Haeng soon

According to Christian Boltanski, a French contemporary artist, "it is not necessary to deal with a larger majority to be an international artist; in order to be able to say 'it is my village,' it is sufficient for each artist to 'talk about his or her own village." The works presented this time are in the form of autobiography reflecting my past experiences. They started with an extremely private intention only to unfold according to my private rhythms, but they do not end up with my autobiography but expand into a public domain.

My works may seem to depict the behaviors of arranging an old diary at the end or beginning of each year. As in many others' cases, my works may be equated with a big symbolic ritual. I recall and reflect on the figures recorded in my old diary, reviewing my relationships with them. I have worked as if I were flashing back on my last year. Then, the diary was dumped out as soon as their functions had been used up. And as I was arranging the figures in my new diary, I attached a new position to each of them. In this way, I talk about my own stories, my memories and recollections in an effort to remind each of my audience of his or her own private stories.

The works with their names inscribed thereupon do not give any information or clue to the people named, and therefore, the audience are quite unfamiliar with the people whose names are inscribed on the works. Nevertheless, the names remind you of actual or virtual figures, allowing you to link the works with the people in my private relationships. Each name evokes a different image or emotion, producing another story, while the audience may well be aware of the names inscribed in their peculiar ways. They explore whether there is a name known to them, and the names unknown to them may exist as symbols or objets. Names are both forms and contents. They are unitary and universal at once. They are individual and at the same time partial. The works are positioned between the names of plural identities and images, and simultaneously, the multiple indications do not reflect on any body for the audience.

To me, each name recorded implies a different story special to me, while harboring a different memory, a relationship of different thickness and intensity. The simple names inscribed are reminiscent of numerous memories, while each name has its own story. Because I have been related specially with many people in terms of stories and emotion, each of them is very unique to me. Likewise, the soap plate objets are unique and special. They are not simple objets but emotionalized and individualized ones. Each of them has its own important immaterial 'weight.' No. each of them has a dominant power more than the weight.

The human relationships are unpredictable and unstable, and the mental relationships (memories) vary as much embarrassingly as the physical ones. For the people varying in my relationships or those disappearing in my memories or those who will be forgotten sometime in the future, I would like to draw them out of the unstable and temporary space or 'memory' to provide them with the permanent spaces worked out. Such behaviors aim to preserve and 'conserve' all the people related with me. Every name inscribed on 'a support' may well gain a permanent dimension although its holder has passed away. Just as N. De Mourgues mentioned, "The art works or the monumental forms may be in memory of the deceased," so my works have been formed to turn the moments into being eternal.

Some people will be erased from my diary, while others will be recorded again. Both groups will be divided into space of memory and that of oblivion. However, just as these two spaces exist in an unseparable single space, so they exist in my works together.

Materialized time and memory is a result from the visual exploration of the mental awareness, and the rearranged spaces will lead to new spaces. Tangibly, the space and the context engaged artistically will be activated through 'mis en scene,' while the mental spaces will be managed untangibly.

My thoughts about memory are linked to my works, being unfolded between the worlds of experiences and thoughts. The unconscious memories escape from dominance of time through arts. Arts allow me to attach a sense of permanency to the outflowing moments by rearranging a mental space within the physical one and through my present being and past stories.

Each of the audience will be invited to play with my 'objets' where such moments have been eternalized, and each objet presented will be shared with the majority - even if it is my own work - while having 'a unique' function for each of the audience. Accordingly, the audience will look at these objets as if they were the sites whereupon their personal memories and recollections are projected.