Lee Soon-Kyu, 2017
Video art piece and documentary
103.9 x 196.4 x 50 cm
Exhibitions:
toute seule, Gazelli Art House, London, 2016
House of Penelope, Gallery 46, London, 2017
Lee Soon-Kyu, an 85-year-old woman, had been married for only seven months and she was five months pregnant when
the Korean War erupted in 1950. Her husband, Oh In-se, disappeared into the conflict, ending up in the North when the war was halted three years later by a truce that left the Korean Peninsula divided. The spouses did not see each
other again until two years later during the first reunions of war-separated relatives arranged by the rival Koreas. This portrait and documentary consist of detailed abstracts of Soon-Kyu’s face, capturing the details of the waiting, recreating her presence in time and abstracting her to universalise her story.
“I was interested in re-creating presence. Sharing the eerie intimacy of being with someone, of partaking in that faith that is waiting…” - Charlotte Colbert
