Critical MAS 2020: Curator’s Choice

“Inevitable Transition” by Kum-Ja Lee

Awarded Curator’s Choice, Mayor’s Art Show 2020, Eugene, Oregon

Written by Sandra Honda

Imagine looking up at a brilliant, jewel-toned sunrise skyline studded with skyscrapers, then down at their reflection looking back at you from deep, dark cobalt blue waters. It could be Manhattan, Chicago, London, or Seoul. This is one of those romantic moments we ooh and aah over. These big, irregular shapes of color are the first moment that draws me into Kum-Ja Lee’s Inevitable Transition. Color seduction is only the first moment, for the work lures me into looking longer into a world where color, texture and layer upon layer of newspaper clippings, Korean paper, gauze, thread, acrylic paint and plywood meet to create a storied work of depth, beauty, tragedy and contemplation.

Inevitable Transition is one of Kum-Ja Lee’s infrequent two-dimensional works. She typically creates fiber installations. Most recently, she exhibited at Maude Kerns Art Center’s February show “Despondent”, where her towering floor-to-ceiling fiber installations showed her mastery in execution of abstract concept. Her works explore Eastern and Western concepts of time. The coronavirus pandemic transported her to a different place in her artmaking. As the pandemic wrapped its arms around the world, seizing lives and livelihoods, Kum-Ja began to ask herself: “Is this epidemic an inevitable incident in the passage of time or a spontaneous occurrence with a transitional period that is heading towards a new age?” This question became her mantra-guide in the creation of Inevitable Transition.

Process is front and center in this work. First came the abstract concept she is trying to portray. Then came the search for materials that could represent, as the artist describes, “[the virus’] permeation, diffusion and transmission.” What could she soak? Paper, gauze and thread. Gauze could be dyed. Newspapers could reveal our current struggle with COVID-19 on multiple fronts — health, jobs, the economy and more. A native of Seoul, South Korea, Kum-Ja grabbed up clippings from Korean newspapers and hanji Korean mulberry paper. She integrated thread and gauze, layer upon layer on the plywood surface. Acrylic paint was applied last.

This mélange of materials has meaning. To Kum-Ja, they represent fortuity, the spontaneous and dynamic change of matter: “I created what I saw and felt.” Through a process of unintentionally applying patches of materials and mark-making, irregular large shapes and patterns emerged, revealing what she says represents “the inevitability of change in human history during this current spontaneous experience.” What comes out of this process is a work that feels much larger than the 20 by 29-inch piece of plywood substrate. In the layering of materials bound by color, Kum-Ja achieves a complex composition that gives life to her search for meaning at the nexus of fortuity and inevitability.

Color and texture are the main actors in this work. Line and text play necessary supporting roles, adding definition, depth, compositional elements, and meaning to the painting. Lee’s deft use of color — the pink, blue, orange, and yellow of dawn, side-by-side with deep blues and subtle greens — add to the landscape feel of the work. Torn pieces of Korean paper flecked with organic matter, along with stretched and strangled pieces of dyed gauze, form irregular, mostly geometric shapes. The weave of the gauze, when pulled, creates areas of crisscrossed lines and misshapen irregular gaps. Lee dyes the gauze to match her palette. Some pieces of gauze are left partially hanging or crumpled, affecting how we read color, value, and depth. More layers of gauze mean less transparency. Lee uses hanging and bunched up layers of gauze to create dynamic edges and shapes, lending an interesting compositional element that leads the eye. She uses this method to great effect to build a focal point in the center of the work — the suggestion of a triangular white cross with a pinnacle pointing toward the heavens. The pinnacle is made even more noticeable against the dark blue contrast on one side, and the bright orange — the brightest in the painting — on the other. Mid-sized daubs of paint integrate the blocky gauze and paper. There is no light impressionist hand here, but the impressionist eye is at work. You can almost see the angle of the rising sun blazing a reflective orange against the buildings.

Black thread defines blocks of color and texture, as what I see as skyscrapers — buildings jutting into the brilliant sunrise sky. Lee lays and glues the thread on the surface. One or more pieces of thread weave in and around the space to create both buildings and reflection. In at least one spot, Lee paints over the thread with white acrylic, thus minimizing the edge and leading the eye out of the plane of threadwork. A larger triangle forms the area where land meets water. Is this where societal decisions are made? The monotony of what could be all rectangles is broken up by a few interesting loops. To me, these loops are symbolic, showing the inner machinations of turmoil between Lee’s fortuity and inevitability.

Underneath the veneer of shape and color are the newspaper clippings. They form the base layer of this painting. They are in Korean, Kum Ja’s native language and the language with which she is still most comfortable. Using Korean newspapers makes this piece and COVID-19 personal. Even though the text is barely visible, its directionality and multiplicity of fonts give another level of vibration to the work.  Lee intentionally chooses articles about social issues. Among them, you will see “감원” (gam-won) meaning layoff, downsize, and rundown, South Korea’s current social and economic state of affairs due to the coronavirus.

Based on this work alone, Kum-Ja Lee is clearly a mature artist. She has a wonderful ability to meld conceptual intent with carefully considered abstract composition and skillful implementation. She owes much to her older brother, painter Seok-Gu Lee. As a child, she would sneak into her brother’s studio, where she was greeted by sketches, memos and many Asian paintings and experimental drawings. She also saw her future self as an artist: “In this quiet space, my spirit became calm.”

Right now, Kum-Ja is collecting cardboard boxes, plastic bags, used Korean papers and other recyclable materials to use in works focused on social and environmental issues. She loves the texture and pliability of recyclable things, which play into her interest in consumerism in today’s world. In coming months, she hopes to explore weaving and various painting mediums. Another two-dimensional work or a sculptural structure will be in the making soon. Look for more of her work at Pacific Northwest College of Art Alumni Show this October. With a long history of exhibitions in Korea and in the Portland area, she hopes to show again in Seoul or Shanghai once COVID-19 restrictions lessen.

“Inevitable Transition” is on display in the old Scan Design window, 856 Willamette St, Eugene. More info at https://www.eugene-or.gov/4459/Mayors-Art-Show—Kum-Ja-Lee