LEE KIIL
July 14 - August 4, 2010
He 6(1971, provided by Cho Yong Nam), inkjet print, 2009
 
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Defining New Paradigm

Independent curator Jin Young Lee

Sometimes we have weird feeling that make us smear into somewhere over the forgotten memories. While there is an old style piano at the lobby of shabby hotel in LA downtown, audiences get into ambiguous and mysterious unknown times. Artist Kiil Lee tried to communicate with audiences by representing the old place of LA at the modern gallery space. When audiences enter the gallery they breack in to the past space and encounter the past time. The artist invited them into the transcendent space with rebuild the great stories of past time at present time. The meaningful things of past time are remain in the history and artist Kiil Lee is the mediator for future pop culture who prove the history. he shows his opinion through his travel into past time which collect and rearrange the records and documents of recent history. “Papa’s Band and OB’s Cabin”is experimental and post-fine artistic ongoing project during last several years. Some criticize that why a fine artist represent the history of popular music at fine art exhibition space. Nevertheless his inventive idea was inspirational enough to defend against those criticisms. The first flare exhibition was . This exhibition integrates and represents the glory of past time into present and this could be the archive for future culture. It is maybe late to make this kind of attribution for Korean rock music has its own long history but if there were someone who shed light on Korean pop culture history it could be hopeful start point. At the same point of view Kiil Lee’s second project, is also time travel into the era almost forgotten and sympatric communication with people. Although the set display of ‘OB’s Cabin’ is simple and shabby if we compare it with the fame of glorious ‘OB’s Cabin’ at the center of Myung-dong at old time, the rebirth of heroic musicians of their own era was joyful. The artist’s intention is not only memorial of passionate rock musicians who were fighting against the infertile environment but also promises for future culture pop music history which is beyond temporary trends. His ambitious final hopeful project and challenge will be the show of Korean old time rock band concert at Liverpool in England which is Mecca of pop music. His projects are finding new meanings of past time and making presence and future as challenge for his vision. They are his theme and transcendent concept of his works. When the range of culture(=art) is spreading boundlessly the subcategory of culture and boarders are often blurred and definitions of genres are meaningless. Kiil Lee’s works are the one of new inspiration for this flow with breaking old paradigms.