Chilpan, 2024
Oil on canvas, wooden frame46.7 x 33.5 cm
18 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches
The work Chilpan recalls the Blackboard Tableau series by Latvian-American artist Vija Celmins, whose meticulous replicas of antique blackboards are arranged with their original counterparts to be nearly indistinguishable. While Lee’s work appears remarkably similar to Celmins’s, a faint inscription can be seen in its center: the Hanja characters for 'geukgi' (克己), the Confucian principle of mastery of one’s ego, self-restraint, and the return to propriety. Under the guise of obedient dictation and the erasure of the self through mimesis, the artist inserts his authorial subjectivity through a counterintuitive methodology of appropriation and intervention.
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