Michelle in Wonderland

Lee Lee Nam-The Landscape of Moon Jar

So I went to Bund 18 today and saw the Wonderland exhibit by Lee Lee Nam of Korea and Hiraki Sawa of Japan. Overall, I would say the exhibit was interesting. However, I was more interested in Lee Lee Nam's art than Hiraki Sawa's art. Both used technology to intertwine both reality and imagination. The exhibit consisted of one small room with Sawa's video installation and a big room with rest of the video installations. They were all video installations. Some small, some big. The above pictures are by Lee Lee Nam. I believe Cecelia mentioned his art. The video installation was really aesthetically appealing. I loved how the seasons changed and the flowers were beautiful. But on the more artsy side, I noticed that Lee Lee Nam really liked to play around with the seasons. For example, the Landscape of Moon Jar, as Cecelia mentioned during the midterm, showed all four season in progression and the effects it has on the moon jar. In all of his video installations there was a relation to seasons. Another commonality Lee Lee Nam has in all his video installations is the blending of the past and present. A lot of natural scenary and city scenary mixed into one. I found Lee Lee Nam's art to be much more enjoyable, but I think it is because it is more appealing to the public. It was very "pretty." Looking at it as a video installation art was quite different. His videos weren't like videos of moving objects. It was scenary with very subtle movement, subtle enough that it did not change the image you were looking at as a whole. Lee Lee Nam's video installations changed by season, day/night, modernity/tradition. In the piece below, Lee Lee Nam has a video of mountains, shown drawn with black ink, very traditional. As you continue to look at the pictures, modern monuments like statue of liberty, the pearl tower appear. As night comes, modern buildings are blended with the mountains and artificial light is shown brightly over the natural scenery. It was impressive. The traditional art was beautiful itself but mixing it with modern city buildings made it entirely different, almost surreal. I like this type of new media. It seems to not be that different from traditional art. The video isntallations of Lee Lee Nam allows you to see more of a progression.


Lee Lee Nam - New Genmgangjeondo


Lee Lee Nam-Conversation between Monet and Sochee

I really enjoyed this video installation by Lee Lee Nam. The above two pictures were right next to each other, in sync with each other. Both changed into night at the same time and started snowing at the same time. Thinking about it now, these two pieces were very similar to the one I mentioned previously. All were pleasing to the eye. The detail was beautiful too. I just really enjoyed looking at the progression from tradition to modern.

This piece is Kiraki Sawa. His pieces' graphics were all very nice. The prominent figures in his pieces were ferris wheels, flying toy airplanes and rocking horses; I believe it has something to do with his childhood. He creates a very imaginary scene, juxtaposing it with everyday objects such as a carpet or a plant. I did not really understand his art at the moment I was observing the pieces but reading up on what it says on the website, it makes more sense of what he created but I would not have really understood if I did not look on the website. It makes sense but as a video installation, I kind of got bored and did not feel the need to finish the video and fully understand what he was trying to convey. All in all the exhibit was good. Small but good. It would make a good quick visit in the bund.