THEO presents Palimpsest, a solo exhibition by Yunhee Lee from December 15 2023 to 19 January 2024.
"Time becomes human time by being woven into narrative modalities, and narrative reaches its fullest meaning when it becomes a condition of temporal existence." Ricoeur, P. (1983). Temps et récit. Editions du Seuil
Yunhee Lee has focused on expressing the story of a girl who overcomes life's adversities to pioneer her own destiny. The refined images are based on Dante's 'La Divina Commedia (1321)', which is the culmination of Western religious and mythological worldviews and narratives. In this exhibition, LEE explores the materiality of matter beyond the white color she has previously focused on. The aim is to tell a more extensive story, distinct from the previous series of work, 'La Divina Commedia.'
The word 'palimpsest' has multiple meanings. The term has an etymological meaning of parchment paper that allows for erasing and rewriting of writing, and a geological meaning of sediments that were deposited long ago and remain unaltered by the new depositional environment. It is a theory of literary criticism that critiques the literature of nineteenth-century Anglo-American women writers. It has a literary-critical meaning as a space for expressing the anxieties and resistances of women writers participating in literary activities previously dominated by men.
The exhibition focuses on the process of working with clay to create a layered narrative. It begins with the word 'palimpsest,' which has multiple meanings. While her previous works aimed for perfection by erasing traces, in this piece she explores the multilayered aspects of the medium through the traces and layers that remain. This process is repeated multiple times, resulting in an accumulation of images above the artwork. The increased images create a sense of accumulating stories, or the artist's confession of the emotions and realizations from that time.
Press release courtesy THEO.
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