Lee Seung Hee
Video for Venice Biennale Architettura 2021
Artwork on display at San Clemente Palace Kempinski, Venice
Artist Statement
Lee Seung Hee is a master of ceramic art known for his contemporary interpretation of traditional Korean and Chinese ceramics. He was trained in the Craft Design Department at Cheongju University in Korea, where he studied ceramics, fiber craft, dyeing, and tapestry. He creates much of his work in Jingdezhen, in southeastern China, where he established a studio in 2008 in the historic center of Chinese porcelain production. Since the establishment of his studio, he has won international acclaim for his Porcelain Paintings, the Space of 8mm series, and his Bamboo series.
His works unite the beauty and charm of traditional Korean motifs, materials, and colors of ceramics with the more conceptual concerns of contemporary art. In this way, he enables viewers to make an imaginative connection between contemporary art and the rich heritage of ceramics.
While working in China, he found new possibilities of clay in its malleable and flexible properties in the making but simultaneously being the most fragile and inelastic material after the completion. Intrigued by the two opposite characteristics, Lee chose to remake bamboo out of clay, wanting to create a juxtaposition and a tension between hard and soft. Lee specifically chooses bamboo that has long been identified with virtues of modesty, integrity, and resilience in its flexible nature and vast root system in Asian culture. Lee’s ceramic Bamboo series accentuates the two coexisting and contradicting natures of clay by re-presenting the flexibility of the natural bamboo in the form of pottery.
When creating the ceramic bamboo series, Lee emphasizes making them look like the bamboos in nature. Lee observes the contraction and deformation of clay soil
and the range of discoloration of the ceramic glaze. Then he creates plaster mold in the shape of bamboo joints based on the acceptable range found during the observation. He pours the ceramic casting slip onto the plaster mold, creating each joint of the bamboo individually. The crucial point during this process is creating harmony while making a slight difference in the thickness, length, and color of each joint.
The ambitious bamboo grove installations at San Clemente Palace Kempinski Venice feature 103 ceramic bamboo tree trunks reaching almost 13 feet in height, which will have as many as 10,000 ceramic joints.
The colors that Lee chooses for his bamboo works consciously recall the classic hues of Korean ceramics: black and reddish-brown. The artist has made black ceramic bamboo groves with striking results to bring a traditional ink landscape to life. The red bamboo ceramics were inspired by a famous story of Su Shi, a renowned writer, poet, painter, and calligrapher from the Northern Song dynasty. Su Shi once said, "There is no black bamboo in the world, but we draw them with black ink. Why can't we draw them with red ink?" This story of a Chinese idiom about overturning a stereotype served as Lee’s momentum to imagine a space filled with red bamboos.
The ceramic bamboos are created as a result of chance and necessity weaved together intentionally with the effort of the artist crossing suitable boundaries. Lee Seunghee states, "I am on my way to finding something which cannot be found in other materials but only in ceramics."
Featured Artwork
#28 Space of 8mm, 2018
ceramic, glaze
32.8H x 33W in.
#31 Space of 8mm, 2018
ceramic, glaze
68.5H x 32.5W in.
#29 Space of 8mm, 2018
ceramic, glaze
32.4H x 68W in.
#29 Space of 8mm, 2018
ceramic, glaze
32.4H x 68W in.
Tao, 2014-2018
ceramic, glaze, cyanide