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Manifesto of November 2018

Hosu Lee

I have investigated mainly about my identity as an artist. I have been reflecting all of my previous works and curated them in a solo show under a theme to find my identity. Am I a sculptor who creates work in the realm of art and technology? What is context/territory of my practice? Who are my audience and what/why do they want to see and get from my artwork? If my artwork does not mainly belong to the art market, how can I still fully be able to continue my practice economically after graduating BFA without financial support from parents?

 

I was unsure of how I can represent myself as an artist other than showing my artwork and talking about it. However, this seems a bit absurd because I do not even fully understand what it is created by me. It has certainly come out of me, but It seems absurd to see myself trying to explain all about something that can become more than what I know. It does not seem right to define my artwork solely by what I think it is, rather it should only be my perspective as a third person, but perhaps it is right to say that I have the deepest relationship with my artwork than any other. I want my artwork to talk about itself directly to the viewer. It is an independent presence apart from me. I can talk about my own practice, but the artwork should be able to talk all about itself by its own. It may sound impossible, but I certainly believe that there is a magical realm where the nonsense communication is possible that leads to the same revelation that artist has gone through.

 

Every one of my artworks seems to be all different in media. My practice always begins from the curiosity for something, and I choose or happen to choose (in more mystical sense) only the necessary media/material to investigate my curiosity. So, I cannot say that I am an artist who uses certain media yet or forever. I am not even certain that I will continue to create 3-dimensional work (or materialistic artwork) because it all depends on where my curiosity leads. Then, in what end, I can call it “artwork” which begins from invisible/chaotic to visible/order? What is significant in every stage of the development of an artwork, and is there possibly a masterpiece that would turn every previous artwork accumulation for one “big picture”?

 

I do not like art becoming a representation or celebration of something else. It sounds blasphemy to art and shameful for artist. I do not want any authority above art, treating art as their modes of celebration. I believe that art is the highest above all discipline, indeed the mother of every discipline. It is the very first miracle that happens in mind that forces a creation. I want to invent a set of tools to discover the truth that has existed from the beginning, not visible and tangible yet. I do not want to belong to any category that already provides accustomed structure to seek the truth, such as religion and science.

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