What comes to mind when thinking of Lee Donggi is the notion of the “non-subjective artwork,” along with popular culture and Pop Art. If one were to describe what he has consistently resisted, it might be termed “conceptual artist-centeredness.” Lee Donggi first refers to Jeff Wall, who challenged Western conceptual art.

Having emerged from conceptual art, Wall came to recognize its limitations and turned his attention to popular culture—particularly advertising—and to the physical scale of the artwork itself. In other words, he moved away from empty concepts and instead emphasized the act of actually seeing and experiencing the work. Considering the recent Korean art scene, where concepts and logic often dominate, Wall’s attitude offers significant implications.

Next is the issue of artist-centeredness. Lee Donggi once pointed out that “the artist has been regarded as the creator of the work, almost like a god who determines its meaning one hundred percent. The viewer was expected to grasp the artist’s intention.” He argued instead for the possibility of entirely different modes of reading artworks. Earlier, Cy Twombly diminished personal identity and emphasized anonymity through scribble-like paintings devoid of hierarchy.
 
In this exhibition, a notable work in relation to Twombly is Doodling. The term “doodling” refers to the act of absentmindedly scribbling during a boring class or meeting. This work incorporates Lee Donggi’s own spontaneous scribbles. Across the canvas, small squares in various colors are scattered throughout; these are pieces of colored paper.

The image is directly taken from a press photograph capturing confetti fluttering during a Christmas celebration. The movement of confetti escapes human control and is formed by chance. Lee Donggi refers to this work as part of his “Eclecticism.” A representative work from this series is Power Sale, a large-scale painting in which diverse images—leaflet slogans, comic illustrations, advertising imagery, the artist’s doodles, North Korean posters, press photographs, abstract forms, patterns, and decorative motifs—are randomly interwoven.

Because the artist does not begin with a predetermined final form, transformations during the process are frequent. In addition, so-called “abstract” works are installed throughout the exhibition space—three on the second floor, four on the first floor, and two in the basement level. These are accumulations of paint shaped by unconsciousness, chance, and spontaneity, rather than by any predetermined logic or concept.
 
In this way, the unconscious doodles, vivid colors, freely arranged forms, striking North Korean posters, imaginative comic imagery, advertising visuals, monumental scale, and decorative patterns that appear in Lee Donggi’s work can be understood as attempts to question conceptual artist-centeredness and to restore the inherent power of painting.

Of course, his work is not entirely devoid of conceptual elements. However, rather than presenting only a concept, it suggests the coexistence of multiple dimensions beyond it. Unbound and free—at times complex and chaotic—his paintings resonate with what he has recently described as “weightlessness.”

References

• [리뷰] 이동기《무중력》
  [Review] Lee Donggi《Zero Gravity》