Kang Seung Lee’s Body Doubles
Layered meanings in a haunting piece by the L.A.-based artist, whose work is currently on view at MASP São Paulo and the Venice Biennale
Layered meanings in a haunting piece by the L.A.-based artist, whose work is currently on view at MASP São Paulo and the Venice Biennale
Making a drawing that is a copy of a photograph, the image enters the eyes, moving down the arm, into the hand, as the pencil moves, leaving marks on the surface of the parchment. This embodied practice, almost automatic, opens the mind to wandering; memories entangled with future anticipations, pulled in both directions.
The drawing shows a double body, José Leonilson’s Lazaro (1993): two men’s shirts sewn together at the hem, arms reaching down to the floor. Later the object was made again, repeated: a three-dimensional pattern cut and sewn, in sambe, woven by hand and traditionally used for funeral shrouds. The name Lazaro (who returns to life) embroidered in antique gold thread from Kyoto, using an alphabet of stylised hands, derived from the paintings of Martin Wong.
Hands making marks, hands stitching fabric, hands weaving a surface, hands scraping goatskin, hands forming words – while pebbles and seed pods layer time and place, and a garden bears witness to our momentary passing. Later still, the double shirt will be worn by two dancers, their movements impeded and connected by twisted fabric. The shirt is a doorway, an echo, a reflection, as our beloved dead enter the shared now, within and beside us always.
‘Sala de vídeo: Kang Seung Lee’ is on view at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil, until 17 November.
Kang Seung Lee will be in conversation with Pablo José Ramírez for Frieze Talks, in association with Kiaf SEOUL and KAMS.
This article first appeared in Frieze Week, Seoul 2024 under the title ‘Two by Two’.
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Main image: Kang Seung Lee, Untitled (Lazaro, Jose Leonilson 1993), 2023. Courtesy: the artist and Commonwealth and Council; photograph: Paul Salveson.
