Biography _ LEE, Soyung

Born in Seoul, S. Korea in 1974.
Received the B.F.A from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, US majoring in Fine Arts.
After brief stay in London, moved back to Korea, received the M.F.A. in Fine Arts/ Media in the Korean National University of Arts.
Currently situated in Korea and participating Sumu Arte artist-in-residence

ARTIST STATEMENT

“I would like to tell a story utilizing the genre of video; a story about a rankling human sentimentality that can be compared to somewhat exaggerated stories featured on TV or movies. I'd like to deal with subject matters such as the complexity of the various cultural context, the conflicts with the surroundings, the unfamiliarities and exaggerations in a mundane life, and the constraints and compulsive desires in a personality.
Often, I want my audience to see a human being in the story, not an individual. What I want to express is a world that started from my experience but is parallel to my everyday life, its boundaries and the outer world somewhere in-between.”

22.–31.8.2008
Soyung Lee:
The Interview of Hypothesis
and
Chasing the Morning

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The interview of hypothesis

is interactive project, which asks for the participation of the audience. This is an interview which lies in the hypothesis of construction of situations. The interview project is not only about contents of interviews, but also emotions and interactions heightened by performing situations. The work consists of the form of events taking place in a simple set installations and the active participation of people. During the performance at Titanik Gallery’s Sumu studio for one week, not only the contents of interviews are important, but at the same time it presents as topics, the diversity and ambiguity of interpretations to questions, various reactions of people such as a tension from talking about themselves in front of the camera, interactions between the interviewer, the interviewee and the camera in this situation.

Chasing the morning

To complete the realm of my own, I need to combine the truths of the visible world that lies outside and understand what is going on within me. It seems to be an infinite seeking and chasing after the two, and in the end, nothing seems real at all. I keep searching for the right representation of the images of mind, but the right fit would never be found.  With this chicken series, I’ve created two different worlds with the images consisting of the real roosters and hens and the artificial models. I’ve first filmed the artificial models of the chicken and a few other birds from the set in Korea and filmed the real chickens in Finland. By doing so, I’m not trying to point out the obvious contradiction of what’s real and not.  I was trying to portray the ideal chicken farm with the stories of their own and was seeking both settings in order to succeed with this purpose.  Again, with a realization of my failure in both cases, I was left with just the representation of my poor imagination and of the live chickens.  But the search for the realm still remains.

Culture has always been a big issue for myself and my work.  My personal experiences in diverse cultures and the places with the conflicts of cultural or historical issues have affected not only my artwork but also my perceptions of the world in general.  When I was given this opportunity to visit and work in Turku, Finland, I had no hesitance and was thrilled with curiosity of this city of Northern Europe and especially of the people since I’m always interested in the sentiments of the people in a different culture.  And since the arrival and meeting of some local people here, now I’m more intrigued about the history and tradition of Turku.