Featured Curator: Liam Graham [cannery-row]
Jung Lee (b. 1972) explores the world of photographic poetic realism with neon light installations, beautifully blending imagery and language to construct powerful and often deeply philosophical compositions. Her series Aporia (2010-2011) juxtaposes romantic motifs borrowed from Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse with desolate landscapes. The series’ title, a Greek word, translates to “impasse, difficulty of passing, lack of resources, puzzlement,” a poignant heading for this lovely, lonely collection.
“Banal declarations of love from love, bland and devoid of poetry, declarations of love that are repeated a thousand times a day, or extrapolated from pop songs with messages of chocolates that would leave only a slight bitter aftertaste, are taken from their natural environment and thrown in some bleak, cold and lonely desert in a blinding neon.”
Lee’s other works include Bordering North Korea, a series where she combines lines from North Korean propaganda with photographs of the countries mysterious and hauntingly beautiful landscape.
