FROM NATURE-mental images No 003 Print

LEE SEOUNG- KU (l963 02-05 Hong 1k University Print Making Adjunct professor(korea) 09-present : professor of yanbian University (china )An Image of Archaeological RhizomeLee Seoung Kus Recent Work: From NatureIt has been over a decade that Lee Seoung Ku has beenworking on his From Nature series of etching,acquaint, and drypoint work, in order to establish anunifying base on which nature and humanity become one.His series began in early the 1990s with the images ofhuman body, and moved to large circular voluminousmasses. From 1996 to the 2000s, he tried to create astriking contrast of light and dark, and dynamicstructures. Recently his screen gradually becamealmost black all over. Basic circular structures werehinted by the visible traces of light and dark shadingof dots, or margins between them. He often ordered thesections of visual masses with vertical, horizontaland curved lines. Meanwhile, his work was movingtowards an analogy of traditional Korean styles. Currently, his work, shown in his 9th solo exhibition,held at the Joseon Daily Newspaper Art Museum inSeoul, clearly indicated different issues which are acontinuation of his experimental trajectory, and whichwill be freshly explored in the 2000s. This was, Ithought, the highlight of this exhibition. His recent work can be described as an image ofarchaeological rhizome, which is the title of thisessay. In other words, these terms are the base on, orroot from, which Lee Seong Ku has generated hisimages. This indicates that the artist wants toestablish his vision of the world in a deeper realm,not on the surface of the natural world or in mentalimages. Until now, the artist termed such a profoundrealm as Nature. However, there is a strong needto articulate this more explicitly, in terms of thearchaeological rhizome. The rhizome is anoriginally botanical term, referring to a root likemutated subterranean stem, shooting out sub-branchesunder the ground that produce small roots. The stemsof Bamboo and lotus are the typical examples of this.Rhizome, here, in Lee Seong Kus work, means thatthe artist wishes his images to be, not like the upperbranches of the plant above the soil, but like thelower branches beneath the soil, shooting out manysmall roots, in order to connect with the one originalsource. In this respect, his work can be described asarchaeological, meaning that it searches for theorigin.