Installation view of “Expectations of Night” ©LeejeThe
solo exhibition “Expectations of Night” by Leeje, a resident artist at the MMCA
Residency Changdong, is being held at the Changdong Residency Exhibition Hall
until January 19.
Leeje
(b. 1975) draws upon everyday experiences and dreamlike imagination in an
uncertain world and explores the potential of painting as a medium to
encapsulate contemporary sentiments. To the artist, "painting" is an
event that senses the ambiguity of existence, resonating with external reality,
and she practices "painting" to engage with diverse subjects and
their spacetime, temporarily withdrawing from the expanding and diverging
world.
Installation view of “Expectations of Night” ©LeejeIn this exhibition, the artist imagines the spaces behind the mirror that reflects a polished reality, uncovering and visualizing the lingering sensations and memories imprinted on the body in the aftermath of specific events. Recurring motifs in the artist’s work, such as forests, earthenware, the body, social landscapes, and incidents, transition from text to video, from video to painting, and from painting to sound, continually evoking traces of presence and absence.
Installation view of “Expectations of Night” ©LeejeIt summons and reconstructs past memories and
future anxieties into the present, reflecting the artist’s contemplative stance
in confronting reality with composure. The light, colors, and sounds that fill
the artworks and the exhibition space serve as mediums to evoke emotional resonance
in the viewers. Ultimately, the artist hopes to inspire a sense of
affirmation—that despite everything, life and the world persist.
Ji Yeon Lee has been working as an editor for the media art and culture channel AliceOn since 2021 and worked as an exhibition coordinator at samuso (now Space for Contemporary Art) from 2021 to 2023.
