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57STUDIO는 국립현대미술관의 열린강좌 프로그램 중 미술관 소장품 강좌 시리즈를 제작하였습니다. 윤범모 관장이 직접 작품을 설명하는 형식으로 구성하였으며, 실제 교육 현장에서 효과적인 학습 자료로 활용될 수 있도록 제작되었습니다. 또한, 어느 장면을 캡처하더라도 교육 자료로서의 기능이 충실히 전달될 수 있도록 화면을 구성하였습니다. 이 시리즈는 작가 12명의 작품을 조명하며, 매주 수요일 YouTube LIVE를 통해 공개되었습니다.

57STUDIO produced the Museum Collection Lecture Series as part of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art’s (MMCA) open lecture program. The series was structured in a format where Director Yoon Bum-mo personally explains each artwork, ensuring its effectiveness as a valuable educational resource for use in learning environments.

The videos were designed so that every frame could function as an informative material, regardless of where it was captured. This series highlights the works of 12 artists and was released weekly via YouTube LIVE every Wednesday.

Lee SeungTaek, Untitled, 1980

Hello, today, we’re going to appreciate Untitled by Lee Seungteak.

Produced in 1980, this is a very unusual work. It’s an ordinary tree, like we’re used to seeing, but it generates a new atmosphere. You can see these things resembling the nests of magpies in various places; he made about twenty of them by bundling rags and tying them with string. What story did the artist want to tell by creating this new type of work? Tying these nest-like shapes to tree branches in the same manner as we see in nature… Today we will explore the type of story that the artist wanted to tell.

Contemporary art is characterized by infinite expansion, without boundaries. And I believe this work should be a representative example of that tendency. In Korea, contemporary art movements began to fully emerge in the late 1950s, and developed in various ways from the 1960s through the 80s. Various modern art movements developed in Korea, from the experimental art of the 1960s, to Dansaekhwa (“Korean monochrome”) in the 1970s, and Minjung art (“People’s art”), based on realism, in the 1980s. One of the important examples is the experimental art movement. Lee Seungteak is an artist who has consistently experimented with his art as an outsider and a stranger, or like a type of maverick, rather than taking a leading role in the painting field. In short, Lee Seungteak’s art is prominently based on deconstructing and challenging stereotypes and fixed ideas.

In fact, Lee Seungteak possesses excellent skills for expression and description. He produced a number of statues of historical figures, clearly demonstrating his expertise in the realistic style. But at the same time, in other works, he showed various elements of abstraction, without concrete form or shape, which cannot be strictly defined as abstract art. Likewise, for his materials, he mostly used non-traditional things, such as plastic and strings, and even briquette ashes, which are not commonly used in art. He also used the fundamental elements, such as soil, water, fire, and wind, as primary materials for his works. Transforming actual soil, water, fire, and wind into a work of art is very unusual. He’s the type of experimental artist who tries various things like putting a flag up in the air and letting it blow in the wind, or starting a fire by a river or in a field, making the smoke rise, or setting fire to a work before floating it on a river. All of these are attempts to overthrow, convert, and reverse values relating to the inherent characteristics of materials. Attempting to instill new meaning in the unique traits of a given object or substance is one of the defining characteristics of his art.

He makes a statement like, “I look at the world upside down and inside out, and the result is my art.” In general, when it comes to sculpture, one uses traditional materials to produce some form, but Lee rejected this in creating so-called “non-sculpture.” Pursuing “non-sculpture” and “form without form,” he showed new ways for expanding and developing the possible motifs, materials, and themes of art. From the late 1950s to today, he has persistently transmitted his experimental spirit in works that often emphasize the meaning of strings or cords. He’s been working extensively with strings or ropes for quite a while. With stones… he ties stones with ropes, generating an optical illusion in which a solid stone looks like something soft. In some cases, the actual rope is gone, but the stones still bear the grooves or traces of rope, for a shape that is deeply resonant. He has long experimented with using strings in diverse ways, such as repeatedly tying them, or creating traces by tying them in zigzag patterns on a wall, or in geometric patterns on a flat surface, producing some shapeless form.

In Korean shamanism, colorful cloths are hung around a Seonghwangdang Shrine and Dangsan Tree in order to protect a village. So if we trace the roots of Lee’s art, we can see that they’re connected to traditional shamanism. His art is the result of capturing traditional aspects and recreating them in his own way. I think that the flags or strings, etc., are his way of “giving new meaning” to shamanism. Focusing on new materials, he has expressed his world in many different ways, including shapeless works, works that disappear after being installed, works of Land Art, and performances. Another such result is this work, Untitled.

At first glance, it’s like a flower or a bird’s nest. But here, the unique meaning and character of a tree have been transformed in the artist’s own way, so that it can be discovered anew and given new meaning. I think this is a characteristic of many contemporary artists, including Lee. The crucial keyword is “to discover.” When you flip a fixed symbol or meaning upside down, you will see a new world. I believe that this work is associated with his habit of turning the world, or art itself, upside down, like a stranger in the art world. This “looking upside down” is one of the ways of seeing the world that he proposes, and the result is this work. How will you see the world? And how will you interpret it? This work forces us to ask ourselves many such questions.