Greatest Hits: Lee Kiil
Lee Kiil’s body of work has been presented through an objectified mode he characterises as “propaganda.” Observing and collecting objects from everyday life shaped by mass production and consumption; stickers, accessories, logos, cigarette cases, he has reinterpreted them to reveal diverse aspects of contemporary society. Through installation, sculpture, and performance, he has explored the categories of site-specific art and the structures underlying modern culture.
His interest in Korean popular music can be understood as an extension of this propagandistic format. In the history of 1960s and 70s pop music, The Beatles stood at a crucial point of origin, influencing not only Korea but shaping the global history of rock and impacting musical genres in many countries.
In Korea, rock music evolved in a way that was deeply intertwined with the nation’s dark political and social realities, producing a distinct trajectory of its own.
Lee Kiil’s “propaganda” begins here, from a new perspective. Rather than limiting the term to its dictionary meaning; activities intended to promote or implant ideas, claims, or effects, his work observes the broader attributes of propaganda and the strategic dimensions of various forms of agitation that unfold within specific historical contexts.
His project does more than commemorate musicians who, in a cultural wasteland, burn with passion for their art and introduce them to contemporary audiences. Through musical artifacts that vividly reflect Korea's historical conditions (banned songs, album cover designs, concepts, and various reproductions), he rereads history from a new vantage point. By representing both the comic and violent aspects of Korea’s modern history in sculptural form, Lee seeks to reexamine their value today and expand them into the realm of art.
Around the 1970s in Korea, foreign pop records, including those of The Beatles, circulated underground in the form of monochrome copy albums known as “back-pan” (bootlegs), as well as semi-licensed releases of uncertain origin, featuring locally designed covers and edited sound sources. At the time, copyright concepts were not clearly established, and it was not until the 1990s that official Beatles albums, including previously banned tracks, were properly released in Korea. These earlier records bear traces of the passion of contemporary musicians and the youthful energy that longed for the West. They remain unique in global music history and have since become prized items among foreign collectors.
Lee Kiil’s solo exhibition, 《Greatest Hits》, captures the clandestine yet fervent consumption of The Beatles in Korea during that period. The exhibition features installation works composed of collected records, CDs, cassette tapes, and related publications; paintings of cassette tapes containing Beatles songs; and silkscreen works based on the record labels of copied albums.