Suwon Lee / Bling! Bling! / The inside, the outside & the in-between
Periférico Caracas / Arte Contemporáneo
Bling! Bling! Is a show about the relationship between the interior and intangible world, the physical-material-tangible world and the areas in between the two.
The exhibition is organized as an autobiographical tour with a certain chronological order that begins with the moment of my conception until the present. It is a journey where my origins and continuous process of transformation is summarized within the context of the duality of an identity that shares essentially the influence of both the Korean and Venezuelan cultures.
All the lights in the exhibition hall are turned off and a black curtain divides it into two equal spaces. The works thus illuminate all the area. In the first space we find “Birth dream” (T´aemong-태몽), a small sculpture in the shape of a small pig (1.5 x 3 cms) made of silver and 24K gold. The sculpture is inside a halogen-lit glass and wood box placed on a plinth. On the other side of this space we find a large format installation entitled “Spring of stars” (Kyeong Chun- 星 春), which is 250 x 600 cms. This piece is made up of twenty fluorescent tube lamps of 120 x 60 cms each that are covered in black fabric which has been perforated with small holes in order to let light rays pass through in simulation of a starry nightscape.
The second space contains a series of photographic portraits and the series of still lives “Bling! Bling!” in light boxes, television sets displaying the videos “Hope/Despair”, “Face” and “The Forest”, and “Mood swing/The Lovers” an object with two LED-containing light bulbs that constantly change color.
The first piece, “Birth Dream” is based on the story of my conception. Within the Korean tradition, a soul enters a woman’s body at the very moment of conception. At this time, the woman has a T´aemong (태몽), literally a “womb dream” or “birth dream”, which serves as a sign for the woman to realize that she is with child. The interpretation of birth dreams are based as much in cultural archetypes as in the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang about the opposing and complimentary dualities that govern the cosmic forces present in all beings and processes of the universe. Fred Jeremy Seligson refers to this tradition in the following way:
“Today in Asia, just as in prehistoric times, when the first signs of pregnancy are unconsciously detected, a vivid and unforgettable dream spontaneously arises to inform a woman that she is with child. The dream arises out of a pool of naturalistic images, from her own personal and inherited memories, and her own mind metamorphoses it into hills, valleys, dragons and pearls. She is a metamorphic being, as all humans are; for she is split into several selves, which come alive, however fleetingly, on a dream landscape long enough for her to commune with and confirm her child-to-be, who has come from “another world” in order to choose and possess an identifying image of its own.”
In these dreams, the spirit of the baby is personified in any object or being that has a symbolic value. There are several recurring archetypes, some of which are related to the animal and plant world and to deities or precious objects, as well as utensils and many more.
When my mother conceived my older brother, she dreamed that a little pig came floating down a river and into her arms. The river symbolizes the passage from one world (the spiritual) to the other (the physical). When she conceived me, she dreamed with a small golden pig that came running towards her and bit her on her elbow. “a girl, though usually affectionate, may bite her mother”. According to the interpretation of professor Jeremy Seligson at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, who has devoted years compiling, organizing and analyzing hundreds of his students´ birth dreams, this means that I actually chose my mother. In Asia, pigs are a symbol of vigor and prosperity and this dream represented a good omen for my mother.
I am interested in describing a phenomenon that is a part of my cultural heritage but that perhaps I myself may not come to experience due to my upbringing far from the Korean society and from the cultural archetypes that mark it. My attitude towards this phenomenon is different from that of any other Korean woman because my distance from the society makes me see its traditions from another perspective.
According to Korean tradition, a name is generally made up of three syllables: the first is the family name and the other two are the surname. Siblings usually share the first syllable of their surname. Kyeong Choon is the name of my paternal grandfather and means “spring of stars” (星Kyeong=star, 春 Choon= spring). When my grandfather named all his children, he gave them each the symbol of star and named them: Kyeong Sik (the harvest of stars), Kyeong Seon (the good star), Kyeong Ja (the daughter of the star), Kyeong Mi (the beautiful star) and Kyeong Jin (the young star). The installation named after my grandfather explores a way of representing this family tree. The naming of the children represents the multiplication of a name, continuing with the family line. The spring of stars brings with it a new birth of stars that in turn multiply and expands the universe with more stars. Dan Flavin and Lucio Fontana are two formal references since I make use of industrial fluorescent tube lamps and the perforation of a surface to allow the passing through of light and to represent a spatial concept within the work and inside a dark physical space.
The spectator is invited to go through a black curtain from the first space into the next space.
Next we find a series of four photographic portraits. The first one is “The Stranger”, a photograph that describes the moment of uncertainty and discovery that immigrants are faced with when leaving their native countries. The experience of the immigrant means not only a constant confrontation with unknown situations, but also self-definition and self-examination within a new context and comparing oneself to the other members of the newly adopted society. I am interested in this process of self-examination as a means of forming a conscience of the identity.
“The Secret Garden” and “Limbo” are part of a series of photos where the same character is repeated in order to describe the multiplicity of the “self” as well as its unity. This series is inspired on the literary concept of the “double” that “arises out of and gives form to the tension between division and unity. It stands for contradiction within unity, and for unity in spite of division.” The double is the projection of a character, usually it is considered a shadow, but in this case, I am interested in considering it as a projection without negative connotations. The double, the other “self” is an extension of a being that shows a psychological imaginary state opposed to the conscious state.
“The Secret Garden” is located in an outdoor setting. There is a tone of illusion and fantasy. A character is present and discovers her surroundings by observing, searching and witnessing. This is the essence of being and being present. “Limbo” describes another state of mind: to be and not to be, to see oneself trapped in a nameless place, waiting, looking out and dreaming of being somewhere else, daydreaming.
These photos describe an inner world, a state of mind, the intangible world of thoughts and the psyche. As opposed to this, the series of “Bling! Bling!” reflects the material world through accessories that represent vanity, greed and earthly pleasures. These are inspired in the vanitas type of paintings from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. “The term vanitas itself refers to the arts, learning and time. The word is Latin, meaning ‘emptiness’ and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity.”
The “Bling! Bling!” series reflects the vanities of those who seek to adorn themselves with luxurious accessories in order to show their status of power and wealth. The term itself is an “ideophone (a sound intended to evoke an idea) of the act of jewelry shining.” In Venezuela these type of jewelry ostentation is very rare, due to the high levels of insecurity in the streets. Gold and diamonds are shown timidly, but to counteract this effect of the socio-economical situation, there has been a boom in the use of fantasy accessories that simulate those made of precious stones and metals. The series “Bling! Bling!” is thus a double fantasy: the image simulates a still life of accessories that simulate wealth.
“The Window” is the fourth piece from the portrait series and acts as a bridge between this series and the “Bling! Bling!” series. This photo is the crossing point between the physical-material world and the psychological-intangible world. The human body (the physical-tangible) and the light (the intangible and immaterial) become one and the same entity, creating in this way a scene where it is difficult to decide where one begins and the other ends.
In different places of the exhibition area there are two animations made from photos: “Hope/Despair” and “The Forest”. In these two pieces I represent the different states of light. The transformation from a totally obscure state to a totally light one and the way in which in these two elements interact interests me. These works are inspired in the baroque chiaroscuro style of painting as well as in the four laws of Yin and Yang: “Yin and Yang are opposing, Yin and Yang are mutually rooted, Yin and Yang mutually transform and Yin and Yang mutually wax and wane”.
The video “Eol Gul” (Face) shows a hand in close-up slowly drawing a circle. A female voice (my mother’s) sings a traditional Korean song:
I try to draw A circle
But I end up drawing your face
Your face brings me back to that dream we once had, pure and white
Reminiscing your eyes, shining like a morning dew on a leaf.
Round and round
Round and round
Your face lingers around me only to vanish in thin air
This is a song my mother sang to me when we were alone. The nostalgic tone, melody and lyrics as well as the idea of a face that disappears alludes to the indefinite and evasive figure of identity. A hand draws a circle that disappears and the cycle repeats itself continuously. The circle represents the infinite and repeats itself infinitely in a constant process of creation and disappearance.
The object “Mood Swing/The Lovers” represents a state of mind in constant change through the use of two LED-containing light bulbs that are united in an aluminum-made base. Each one has its own rhythm while changing color and only briefly do they cross each other at the same hue of color, only to continue changing separately.
The tour around the show from beginning to end intends to generate an atmosphere where all of the works are unified under the context of light and dark and where there is also a study about the relationship of the physical and the psychological. I use the term “bling bling” to name the exhibition beyond the reference to the imaginary sound of light shining on a physical body in order to underline the importance of light in each single piece and in all the show.
Suwon Lee
May 2008
