Sujin Lee

The nature flows green inside my light-off heart, leaving some mark behind, and walking along with that mark, I am in the landscape at some point.

A person, who tried to walk into the landscape she created herself, is willing to get lost in it.

The green mark becomes grass, flowing clouds, falling water, burning fire, and scattering smoke, changing its appearance continuously.

This cycle resembles an essence of the nature.

Carrying on my works, I realize that the way I express the nature concludes into one pattern at last.

I like simple ingredients. I am more interested in emptying than filling.

I think of what will remain eventually if I keep emptying more and more.

I cannot stop thinking that this move of painting is so exhausting and waste of resources.

However, I just cannot flow it away what comes in my mind either.

I supposed to enter while making a way from the outside to my inside,

But even after I entered, my eyes still go toward the outside over and over.

I thought I managed to move what was on the outside to my inside,

Yet it keeps uncontrollably leaking from my inside to the outside again.

Emptying and filling repeat endlessly as tides do.

A lost person is constantly lost, and only the green mark remains.

불 꺼진 내면에 자연은 푸르게 흘러들어 어떤 자국을 남기고, 그 자국을 따라 걷다 보면 어느새 풍경 속에 내가 들어와 있다. 자신이 만든 풍경 속으로 스스로 걸어들어가고자 했던 사람은 기꺼이 그 안에서 길을 잃는다.

푸른 자국은 풀 이기도 했다가 흐르는 구름이나 떨어지는 물, 타오르는 불이기도 했다가 흩어지는 연기가 되기도 하면서 계속해서 모습을 바꾼다. 이 순환은 자연의 속성과 닮았다. 작업을 이어가면서 내가 자연을 표현하는 방식이 결국은 하나의 패턴으로 귀착된다는 것을 알아차린다.단순한 재료가 좋다. 채우는 것보다는 비우는 것에 관심이 있다. 조금씩 더 비워내다 보면 결국 무엇이 남을까 생각한다. 그림을 그리는 이 몸짓이 매우 소모적이며, 자원을 낭비하는 일이라는 생각을 멈출 수 없다. 그러나 떠오르는 것들을 그저 흘려보낼 수도 없다.바깥에서 안으로 길을 내어 들어가야지 생각했는데, 막상 안으로 들어서니 자꾸만 바깥으로 시선이 옮겨간다. 외부에 있는 것을 간신히 내부로 들여놓았다고 생각했는데, 내부에서 다시 외부로 새어 나가는 것을 걷잡을 수 없다. 밀물과 썰물처럼 비워지고 채워지는 것을 하염없이 반복한다. 길을 잃은 사람은 부단히 길을 잃고, 다만 푸른 자국이 남았다.

Sujin Lee (b. 1989) is a visual artist based in Seoul. She majored in Sound Production in her university and worked as a sound designer after graduation. At a later day, however, she felt her own limitations in the field of design, and she started painting at the age of 28 after full consideration. She is actively working on her paintings to this day.

Sujin Lee collaborated in various fields; Her major works include the <Sound Is> project of the speaker brand Sonos with the London creative agency. Anyways, illustrations for the German feminism magazine «Missy Magazine», and album cover for the British bands Squid. She also participated in the artist collection show «Circuit Seoul» in Seoul, 2021, and the art fair «Grimdosi» in 2022.

2020

Missy Magazine / magazine illustration / Berlin

Yoon Jiyoung <부끄럽네> / Album artwork / MAGIC STRAWBERRY SOUND(Seoul)

2021

Sonos <sound is...> Project / artwork / sonos & anyways(California & London)

Squidband <Near The Westway> / Album artwork / London

Circuit Seoul / Artist Collection Show / musinsa terrace(Seoul)

2022

Grimdosi / exhibition and fair / seoul284(Seoul)

Grimdosi: The Last City Museum / group exhibition / subtitlednyc(Newyork, brooklyn)

Poset / Postcard Library / Seoul

2023

Gong Ryuyoung / Album artwork / Seoul

Sujin Lee

instagram.com/sujinlees

letranger.lee@gmail.com