THE FIRST GRADE
Kim Mi-Ryoung (Creative Art Director, Parkview Green Exhibition Hall)
Artists’ creation, as we know, is closely related to their life experience, and Seungkoo Lee is no exception. To understand his works, we have to take into serious consideration the changes in his identity and sense of belonging as he settled down in different places. Actually his twenty years’ migration can be divided into three periods. He lived in South Korea until he was around twenty-five when he shifted to Germany where he then stayed until he got around thirty. Seven or eight years ago, he moved to Beijing and has lived here ever since. In the last twenty years he migrated every eight years on average and lived for quite some time in three countries. Twenty years is not quite long, but not short either. In what way did the migration influence his understanding of art production? Has the image DDINGGU changed as the result of the migration? Why does the artist choose DDINGGU his most identifiable image? What does DDINGGU mean to him as an artist, and to us as audience?
DDinggu
“DDINGGU has not only teeth but also its own actions and looks. It is actually like a human being in its own way. It is also devoted to his single-minded pursuit of truth, courage and freedom, follows the voice from his innermost. Very active and dynamic.” (Seungkoo Lee)
The dog called DDINGGU, as the artist said, has become his most representative image, through which he gives expression to his inner world. DDINGGU, as a matter of fact, is the artist’s childhood nickname. In one way or another, there is always something funny about our childhood nicknames. Our playmates usually give nicknames that sound a bit foolish but at the same time innocent and cute. It is actually a sign of intimacy, as well as playfulness. Her childhood friends prefer to call him “DDINGGU” instead of Seungkoo, probably because this nickname vividly reflects his character. On one hand, he is as innocent and naïve as children are, and on the other, he faces the outside world as bravely as he can. He gives his own nickname DDINGGU to the bull terrier probably because he is projecting on the dog his growth and life experience. Here I want to share something interesting. It is about the origin of this breed of dog. The bull terrier, originated in the 19th century, is a breed based on the bulldog and the terrier, both being brave, fierce and tenacious hunting dogs. Over a hundred years has passed, the human bred bull terriers do not show much of their temperament as hunting dogs and are kept as pets now. I might be digressing here, but I found the bull terrier we usually see today have a lot in common with Lee’s DDINGGU in terms of temperament, I should say. I don’t know if it is a coincidence. In the depth of their inner world there remains something wild, aggressive and stubborn, so despite their well-accepted role as pet dogs and intensive training, they often find themselves torn between instinct and social imposition. Each DDINGGU in Lee’s works speaks about our conflicted mind, particularly the wishes to release ourselves from social restrictions, to follow our instinct, and to live free lives. It might not be something new, as we can always find around us lots of people in the same situation.
As a Marginal Man
As I mentioned, to understand Lee’s art, we have to follow the changes in his understanding of his identity and sense of belonging during his migration. It is not easy to lead a mobile life in three countries in the past twenty years, as he had to learn and to adapt to different cultural backgrounds and social environments, and more frustrating is that the locals tend to regard him as a marginal foreigner even if he has lived long enough in a place to feel that he has become a local. During the years he has experienced lots of frustrations and difficulties, alienation due to difference in customs and culture, as well as bias from the locals. As a matter of fact, what happened to him is not unique to whoever tries to adapt to the life in another county, as in a country undergoing rapid development people with different ideas and from different systems inevitably run into conflicts and some people are inevitably pushed to the margin and can hardly be saved from the difficult situation.
In this sense these countries where Lee stayed for several years have all lived through years of complexity and difficulty. The rapid development in the Northeast Asia ensued by conflicts as a result of the side effect of overdevelopment and political ideology. Germany lived through division and unification. Differences in culture and history, more exactly, the difference between the East and the West, between China and South Korea in ideology, the reunified Germany, the Western thinking, as well as the social conditions in the West, all pose a big challenge to Lee when he tries to adapt himself to the new environments and to start a new life there, so he has to remain an observer, a marginal one.
At this exhibition Lee will present “his child”. It is his baby, as he said, a symbol of his longing. In other words, it is an embodiment of his longings for unbiased pursuit of his dreams and the kind of life he values.
“I’ve been in China for seven years. I’m like a first grader, I think. If only time could take me back to that time! This way I got a chance to rid myself of all the stereotyped viewpoints and prejudice, and to pursue what is most essential in life.” ((Seungkoo Lee)
THE FIRST GRADE
Kim Mi-Ryoung (Creative Art Director, Parkview Green Exhibition Hall)
Artists’ creation, as we know, is closely related to their life experience, and Seungkoo Lee is no exception. To understand his works, we have to take into serious consideration the changes in his identity and sense of belonging as he settled down in different places. Actually his twenty years’ migration can be divided into three periods. He lived in South Korea until he was around twenty-five when he shifted to Germany where he then stayed until he got around thirty. Seven or eight years ago, he moved to Beijing and has lived here ever since. In the last twenty years he migrated every eight years on average and lived for quite some time in three countries. Twenty years is not quite long, but not short either. In what way did the migration influence his understanding of art production? Has the image DDINGGU changed as the result of the migration? Why does the artist choose DDINGGU his most identifiable image? What does DDINGGU mean to him as an artist, and to us as audience?
DDinggu
“DDINGGU has not only teeth but also its own actions and looks. It is actually like a human being in its own way. It is also devoted to his single-minded pursuit of truth, courage and freedom, follows the voice from his innermost. Very active and dynamic.” (Seungkoo Lee)
The dog called DDINGGU, as the artist said, has become his most representative image, through which he gives expression to his inner world. DDINGGU, as a matter of fact, is the artist’s childhood nickname. In one way or another, there is always something funny about our childhood nicknames. Our playmates usually give nicknames that sound a bit foolish but at the same time innocent and cute. It is actually a sign of intimacy, as well as playfulness. Her childhood friends prefer to call him “DDINGGU” instead of Seungkoo, probably because this nickname vividly reflects his character. On one hand, he is as innocent and naïve as children are, and on the other, he faces the outside world as bravely as he can. He gives his own nickname DDINGGU to the bull terrier probably because he is projecting on the dog his growth and life experience. Here I want to share something interesting. It is about the origin of this breed of dog. The bull terrier, originated in the 19th century, is a breed based on the bulldog and the terrier, both being brave, fierce and tenacious hunting dogs. Over a hundred years has passed, the human bred bull terriers do not show much of their temperament as hunting dogs and are kept as pets now. I might be digressing here, but I found the bull terrier we usually see today have a lot in common with Lee’s DDINGGU in terms of temperament, I should say. I don’t know if it is a coincidence. In the depth of their inner world there remains something wild, aggressive and stubborn, so despite their well-accepted role as pet dogs and intensive training, they often find themselves torn between instinct and social imposition. Each DDINGGU in Lee’s works speaks about our conflicted mind, particularly the wishes to release ourselves from social restrictions, to follow our instinct, and to live free lives. It might not be something new, as we can always find around us lots of people in the same situation.
As a Marginal Man
As I mentioned, to understand Lee’s art, we have to follow the changes in his understanding of his identity and sense of belonging during his migration. It is not easy to lead a mobile life in three countries in the past twenty years, as he had to learn and to adapt to different cultural backgrounds and social environments, and more frustrating is that the locals tend to regard him as a marginal foreigner even if he has lived long enough in a place to feel that he has become a local. During the years he has experienced lots of frustrations and difficulties, alienation due to difference in customs and culture, as well as bias from the locals. As a matter of fact, what happened to him is not unique to whoever tries to adapt to the life in another county, as in a country undergoing rapid development people with different ideas and from different systems inevitably run into conflicts and some people are inevitably pushed to the margin and can hardly be saved from the difficult situation.
In this sense these countries where Lee stayed for several years have all lived through years of complexity and difficulty. The rapid development in the Northeast Asia ensued by conflicts as a result of the side effect of overdevelopment and political ideology. Germany lived through division and unification. Differences in culture and history, more exactly, the difference between the East and the West, between China and South Korea in ideology, the reunified Germany, the Western thinking, as well as the social conditions in the West, all pose a big challenge to Lee when he tries to adapt himself to the new environments and to start a new life there, so he has to remain an observer, a marginal one.
At this exhibition Lee will present “his child”. It is his baby, as he said, a symbol of his longing. In other words, it is an embodiment of his longings for unbiased pursuit of his dreams and the kind of life he values.
“I’ve been in China for seven years. I’m like a first grader, I think. If only time could take me back to that time! This way I got a chance to rid myself of all the stereotyped viewpoints and prejudice, and to pursue what is most essential in life.” ((Seungkoo Lee)