“Long Trip” Installation view at Chapter II ©Chapter IIChapter II, a gallery in Yeonnam-dong, presents Long Trip a solo exhibition by artist Lee Ue Sung (b. 1982), on view through June 3. Lee Ue Sung was selected for the Chapter II Residency in 2021, and the exhibition will showcase new works created during and after the residency to demonstrate his achievements.
The artist’s trademark is to borrow the appearance of objects and elaborate them without changing their essential properties, and he presents the exhibition in his format with wit. In this exhibition, frozen tuna and Styrofoam boxes are used as objects to depict the relativity of time as a journey of matter and energy.
Frozen foods, which are readily available around us, are relatively inferior in value and freshness to fresh or refrigerated foods, but tuna is one of the exceptions. Frozen tuna is caught in large quantities in distant waters, flash-frozen immediately, and shipped months later in an ice shell that transcends distance and time. In this process, the tuna increases in volume and weight, time is delayed, and the energy invested in it becomes a solid form and a shell of time.
Looking at this process and applying the relationship between space-time and the flow of energy to his work, “The artist captures the physical or psychological gap in time that varies depending on location and environment with a shell of time that accumulates on the frame and surface of the sculpture, as the time inside the workshop does not keep up with the flow of time in the outside world and the current time is recognized in hindsight.” He explains.
The use of non-artistic materials and objects in the works and the way they are exhibited benefit from Dadaism and wittily convey to the viewer the main questions about the artist’s work and life
