brilliant 30: Artist Lee Wan
Exploring the world’s structures; the individual and the group
![[brilliant 30] Season 2 – “Lee Wan”](/upload/brand/view/V000030636/D000030639/P000034093_E000068447.jpg)
Q. What can you tell us about your most recent project, the Made in series?
A. It began with my traveling through countries in Asia in 2013. Through the project, I have been producing goods of historical or representative significance for each country, while also documenting the production process on video. For example, I have produced sugar from the sugar-cane fields of Taiwan, with the process captured on video as a documentary. The Made in series was inspired by the thought of whether or not it would be possible to 'refuse being a consumer bound to the logic of capitalism, and instead create goods' while living in an age where private consumption is the only option offered to us. The project continues to provide insight, taking us deeper into a wholesome understanding of where I, the individual stand in this society by exploring the principles which guide the inner workings of the world.
I think that a wholesome understanding of myself provides an important reference for understanding other individuals, groups, my community, society, nation, and the world. My artwork reveals structures–but the story it tells is about the individual and the group. - Lee Wan -
Q. What inspired you to begin this project? Was it a particular experience, perhaps an epiphany?
A. When I was a child, the artifacts displayed at the museum always made me wonder…Imagining our ancestors eating with those plates and bowls 500 years ago, and then probably washing them to be placed back in a cupboard, was awe-inspiring. I was very curious as to what 'past' those artifacts had, what history they underwent before being brought into the museum. In my 20s, I moved out of my parents' house and went to the shopping mall to purchase necessities. While shopping, I had a similar moment of inspiration. I wondered, 'how can these countless numbers of objects each have been delivered from somewhere around the world, and produced to such exact specifications? They originate from so many countries and represent the handiwork of so many people, using unfathomable technologies, so how come I need only pay a small fee for these goods?!' It was amazing. I wondered what it was that made it all possible; was it capital, ideologies, and regulations? I wanted to personally experience the production process of an individual product. That was how I made up my mind to look closely into how the inner workings of production and distribution are intertwined between politics, economics, society, and culture.
Q. What stories can be found in your work? What do you seek to achieve through your art?
A. I felt that myself, the way I am, and what was defining me in the present moment, were, without exception, external factors. I concluded that in order to know myself, I first needed to understand what composed that externality–the essence and mechanics of that structure that underlies the world. I think that a wholesome understanding of myself provides an important reference for understanding other individuals, groups, my community, society, nation, and the world. My artwork reveals structures–but the story it tells is about the individual and the group. I hope that this story can open windows onto those gigantic, yet deeply hidden structures. Furthermore, I hope it will help individuals to understand their lives, and help us all find balance.
Q. What defines your being, and gives you that brilliance?
A. I had fallen asleep on the plane. Then, I awoke to the ambient noise of suppressed conversations, rows and aisles of seats packed with people, and the awareness that we were airborne, up in the clouds. In my dazed state, I found it quite uncanny, facing reality (I also had random thoughts and questions about why this world even exists.) To explain, it felt like a memory recall function in a computer, with my ability to operate beginning with conscious awareness. Like the memory of a machine, all the things that I have experienced and accumulated through life define me and my existence, and my being is essentially a collection of those memories (or data, if you will). So to answer your question, every moment that is to be saved to my memory, and whatever generates those moments, is brilliant.
Q. What expectations and plans do you have for your life, looking beyond your 30s?
A. Past the flowery days of my 20s, in my 30s I find myself living through a very different time; it is my summer spent in the wilderness, if you will. I think the seasons are changing, and that I am near my autumn. I guess winter is not too far away, either. For me, big 40 is only 3 years away. I look forward to it, in fact, because I feel that I will be given more opportunities to do what I want. I look forward to many things–painting, writing, even getting involved with music and film… But the seasons do change faster than I think. I have a feeling that my next decade will be a time of planning carefully to make each of those hopes come true.
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Made in Thailand, Silk. 2013
Single Channel Video & Product. Dimensions Variable
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Made in Thailand, Silk. 2013
Single Channel Video & Product. Dimensions Variable
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Made in Myanmar, Gold. 2014
Single Channel Video & Product. Dimensions Variable
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Made in Myanmar, Gold. 2014
Single Channel Video & Product. Dimensions Variable
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Made in Cambodia, Rice. 2014
Single Channel Video & Product. Dimensions Variable
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Made in Taiwan, Sugar. 2013
Single Channel Video & Products. Dimensions Variable
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Product. 2015
C-print. 160 x 210 cm
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The Possibility of Impossible Things. 2012
Installation, Mixed Media. 330 x 345 x 122 cm
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How to Become Us. 2011
Installation, Collected 60 objects cut & combined into the average weight of 5.06kg, Dimensions Variable
Profile
Lee Wan studied sculpture at Dongguk University College of Fine Arts. His entry into the art scene was through the Joongang Fine Arts Prize. He is also the recipient of the 1st Art Spectrum Award for Artists.
■ Selected Solo Exhibitions
<How to Become Us> (Artspace POOL, Seoul, Korea, 2011)
<Made in> (Doosan Gallery, New York, United States, 2014)
<Us and Them> (Project Space SARUBIA, Seoul, Korea, 2014)
<Oh, Pure Love> (Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea, 2014)
<Silence in Between> (313 Art Project, Seoul, Korea, 2015)
■ Selected Group Exhibitions
<Burning Down the House> (The 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea, 2014)
<ARTSPECTRUM 2014> (LEEUM, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea, 2014)
<Spheres7> (Galleria Continua Les Moulins France)
<Intersections/New Conjunctions> (UN art project, United Nations Headquarters, New York, United States, 2015)
Introduction to <brilliant 30>, leading you to 30 inspirations of young artist
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