INTERVIEW NEON ARTIST JUNG LE
From the Archive · Art · Seoul
Jung Lee
Neon text planted in deserted Korean landscapes, Barthes's lover's discourse made visible, and the displacement that comes with being between cultures that do not fully accept you.
Why this conversation
Jung Lee's work stopped me the first time I saw it: neon phrases glowing in empty Korean plains, sentences that read like someone left their diary open in a snowfield. What she does is deceptively simple. She takes the cliched language of love and longing, the phrases people say when they are desperate, and plants them physically into the landscape. The result is beautiful and melancholy at the same time. Her central influence is Edward Said, specifically Orientalism and his autobiography Out of Place. "I often feel that the title is exactly about me," she told me. She was describing the experience of being between cultures that do not fully accept you, of making work in the language of desire and displacement that is formally Korean but emotionally universal.
My work deals with text, but it focuses more on the complex emotions behind the text rather than its meaning.
Jung LeeThe Artist
Jung Lee was born in Seoul in 1972 and lives and works in Korea. She is best known for her photographs of text-based neon light installations set directly into the landscape: contrasting sentimental phrases juxtaposed with stark deserted plains or barren snow fields. One of her central sources is Roland Barthes's A Lover's Discourse. Lee slows everything down, patiently analyzing that most intense and overwhelming of states: unanswered desire, the language of complete love and the deep solitary state it throws the lover into.
She collects expressions of love and hatred, "How could you do this to me?" and "I still remember", and gives them resonance in the form of powerful proclamations set against the Korean night. "My work always starts with text," she has said. "I choose texts I like and visualize their images. Turning my imagination into reality is a process much like a journey. Each text leads to its own journey."
Selected exhibitions include a solo presentation at Frieze London in 2011, participation in the 2010 Gwangju Biennale under the direction of Massimiliano Gioni, and shows at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Seoul Museum of Art, and Gwangju Museum of Art. Her work is represented by Galerie Christophe Guye.
The Conversation
Greatest inspirations or influences?
Edward Said. His book Orientalism gave me the view of displacement that my art has been based on. I also love his autobiography Out of Place. I often feel that the title is exactly about me.
Most interesting response to your work so far?
Someone said to me in the show, "I have been in love once in my lifetime." That led me to work on another image, "Once In A Lifetime."
Favorite websites or publications?
- Blind Spot
- European Photography
- Camera Austria
- Frieze
- Artforum
Anything else you would like to share?
When I was at art college, my tutor said, "If your work is right, something right should happen." I agree. If you believe in your work, just work hard. Your patience will get rewarded sometime.
If your work is right, something right should happen.
Jung Lee's tutor, and the artist's own beliefFind Jung Lee
- Artist website: junglee.kr
- Gallery: Galerie Christophe Guye
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Jung Lee, Once In a Lifetime, 2011, C-type Print, 136 x 170 cm
Jung Lee, Green Art Gallery,
Jung Lee, Green Art Gallery, Installation view 17 (The End, 2010, C-type Print,100 x 125 cm)
