Lot 1402: LEE LEE NAM

LEE LEE NAM
(B. 1969)
New Kiss
signed 'Lee Lee Nam' in English (lower right)
monitor, mixed media, video installation art
video length: 3 min. 45 sec.
video length: 3 min. 45 sec.
screen: 125.5 x 69 cm. (49 3/8 x 27 1/8 in.)
frame: 152 x 97 10 cm. (59 7/8 x 38 1/8 x 3 7/8 in.)
edition 1/6
Executed in 2010

Lee Lee Nam's appropriation of images from the art historical canon challenges the viewer's notion of authenticity and reproduction. As the global economy serves as a matrix for promoting standardized consumer symbols, Lee embeds Walter Benjamin's simulation theory for viewers to self-reflect on their behaviour within the capitalist society by challenging the authenticity of image and by making sophisticated modification to historical masterpieces to prove that aesthetic autonomy reacts to consumption habits.

Media has transformed our reality, producing wide-ranging societal, economic, moral, personal and political consequences. Noting this inescapable influence, Lee chose video and television as his artistic medium to cleverly deliver the level of communication and encapsulation which artworks should hypothetically impress. Driven by the same inventive outlook as Gustav Klimt, Lee too has broken away from convention by replacing canvas with television and also in his endeavour to demolish the distinction between high art and low art just as Klimt's revolutionary attempt in diffusing the conceited distinction between the fine artist and craftsman. He recreates the epitome of love, Gustav's Klimt's The Kiss, animating his subjective comprehension of the work and leaving little for the viewer's imagination. Lee utilized elements from the original painting to stimulate the indescribable sensation of love, streaming in suave and subtle circulation as a metaphor for endless love; the fog disperses slowly to build anticipation for the image to be revealed, water trickling down to subtly uncover hints of The Kiss, their romance embellished with golden flecks shimmering down with scenes of kisses from black and white romantic movies replacing their intricately adorned clothing. Lee strengthens the theme of love and the lovers' embrace by gracefully enveloping their form in unity and into abstract patterns, thus, discreetly impersonating Klimt's iconic technique in his opulent patterning that releases the transformative power of love.
Lee reveals for us our modern fascination with efficiently accessible information, as we find ourselves captivated by his self explanatory, take on the original as opposed to monotonous masterpieces that require time and contemplation. By also exploiting our interest in moving images, he also demonstrates our innate inclination towards invention and change.