Pour Yoora Lee, artiste coréenne basée à Chicago, la toile prend des allures d’images perçues à travers des écrans: filtres bleus, stries horizontaux, composent l’ensemble de ses toiles. Particulièrement nostalgique des moments passés adolescente devant la télévision ou sur internet dans les années 90, l’artiste cherche à vivre à nouveau ces ressentis. Une époque durant laquelle la Corée du Sud a connu une grande prospérité économique et vivait pleinement dans le présent sans se préoccuper de l’avenir. De cette bulle enchantée, l’artiste en garde des souvenirs très marqués. En empruntant certains procédés cinématographiques, tels que les cadrages ou les angles de vue, Yoora Lee parvient le plus justement à transcrire plastiquement ces souvenirs lointains, désormais perçus avec beaucoup de mélancolie et d’amertume.
La peintre y tisse des narrations inédites où passé et présent se rencontrent dans un entremêlement de plusieurs récits. L’illusion est telle qu’il est impossible de démêler les éléments puisés du passé de ceux tirés du présent. L’espace ainsi créé permet à l’artiste de se réfugier dans un lieu unique où ses souvenirs et sensations personnels passés s’épanouissent et se meuvent librement dans une temporalité pleinement présente. Ces scènes intimistes prennent alors l’aspect de subtils autoportraits.
Alors si l’artiste nous offre des souvenirs de ses émotions, ses compositions ne se veulent pas pour autant explicites. Au contraire, Yoora Lee suggère plus qu’elle ne décrit.
À l’occasion de l’exposition intitulée « A Missed Encounter » , qui ouvrira ses portes jeudi à la Galerie Mighela Shama , où Yoora Lee exposera aux côtés du peintre britannique Richard Burton, l’artiste a accepté de répondre à mes questions ! Je vous partage alors en exclusivité mon entretien avec la peintre.
La peintre y tisse des narrations inédites où passé et présent se rencontrent dans un entremêlement de plusieurs récits. L’illusion est telle qu’il est impossible de démêler les éléments puisés du passé de ceux tirés du présent. L’espace ainsi créé permet à l’artiste de se réfugier dans un lieu unique où ses souvenirs et sensations personnels passés s’épanouissent et se meuvent librement dans une temporalité pleinement présente. Ces scènes intimistes prennent alors l’aspect de subtils autoportraits.
Alors si l’artiste nous offre des souvenirs de ses émotions, ses compositions ne se veulent pas pour autant explicites. Au contraire, Yoora Lee suggère plus qu’elle ne décrit.
À l’occasion de l’exposition intitulée « A Missed Encounter » , qui ouvrira ses portes jeudi à la Galerie Mighela Shama , où Yoora Lee exposera aux côtés du peintre britannique Richard Burton, l’artiste a accepté de répondre à mes questions ! Je vous partage alors en exclusivité mon entretien avec la peintre.
Could you introduce yourself?
I was born and raised in South Korea. Currently, I’m based in Chicago. I’ve always enjoyed drawing things since I was kid. I went to art middle school and high school and grew up interacting with friends who do art as well as music and ballet. And I received a B.F.A in painting at South Korea and moved to Chicago in 2016. And I graduated with M.F.A in Painting and Drawing from school of the Art institute of Chicago in 2020. My work has been exhibited internationally including Chicago, New York and South Korea.
" My work depicts many desiring moments, or moments of subjunctive mood, that I want to go back, love or anything. It is also a self-portrait of myself floating between reality and fiction. "
Yoora Lee
Event Horizon, 2020, Oil on linen, 72 x 80 in
Your paintings focuse on details of a scene we can imagine bigger. And in a tiny surface many elements merge and multi plans juxtapose to each others. It confers to the painting the sentiment of looking an image in an other image. Could you describe us your artistic process?
My works deal with questions connected to the past and to more recent history and address subjects of our daily lives through a set of images recreated from the television and the Internet. I capture the contrast between the reality and illusion through my painting. My work depicts many desiring moments, or moments of subjunctive mood, that I want to go back, love or anything. It is also a self-portrait of myself floating between reality and fiction. This combination is a reflection of my experiences through media and observations on moments of, young generation’s culture and mundane desires.
The finish of your painting, the wavering horizontal remind me the quality of the screen of the old tv. But the elements depicted in bring us in contemporaries scenes. What do you want to underline?
I think the time of history or the past is edited and newly constructed by the person who records it. Even now, time is in the past momentarily, and we record the memories through capturing photos and videos. People can experience and feel indirectly through various media even in an era they have never experienced. The past is a subjective record. No history written by anyone shows the past as it was originally. My works are based on images from the computer, phone or TV screen which is distancing from objective reality. I’m interested in the idea of filtering the time and space. As I saw many images through the screen, I started working on it wondering if what I was seeing was real. I often combine images on the screen that are self-portraits of the artist myself or illusions of the images from the media. It is also expressed as if a screen filter exists between painting and the viewer.
No More Bet, 2019, Oil on linen, 20 x 20 in
Sometimes the details of the scene project us very closed to the character. You emphasize on the hand, the feet and we don’t really discover his/her identity. Could you explain us this choice and your frame choices?
I paint hands, foots and sometimes half a body. The choice to create a mysterious complication in the subject makes the figure unidentifiable to the viewer, allowing them to imagine the scene well beyond the picture's plane. Without the full face, the figures feel blank, inviting the viewer to project themselves into their points of view and wonder about their intentions. The only thing the viewer can be sure of is a hazy feeling of uncertainty.
You often use pastels tones and especially blue and purple tones. Your paintings could be related by that. Why do you decide to use this kind of colours for your depictions?
Color in my painting is the most important element of representing my filtered reality. Certain color contrasts create depth, separation and certain mood in my work.
My work is mostly accompanied with emotions such as loneliness, feeling of empty and melancholic. Expressing these ideas, it naturally led to the use of many cool toned colors. Also, the cool tone of my work is derived from the blue light on the screen or from the faded color of low quality old video stills.
What are your main artistic influences ?
I get a lot of inspiration from movies, especially I’m interested in cinematography such as the composition and the framing and the lighting all those things in films.
I am also thinking a lot about the point of view of my work while studying camera lenses and angles like the perspective and the psychological effect that has on the viewers. I think it is very attractive that the mood and direction of a scene change depending on the camera's view and composition in the movie. I approach painting in a similar way that the director playing with camera angles.
VVVR, 2020, Oil on canvas, 30 x 30 in
See thru, 2021, Oil on linen, 20 X 20 in
Sneaky Night, Oil on canvas, 24 x 22 in, 2019
Prologue, 2020, Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in
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