INSIDE OUTSIDE INTERSIDE Thing today are getting more complicated, all mixed up in a hodgepodge. For instance, it is nearly impossible to draw the line between conservatives and liberals in Korean politics. In a crisis, the facts often are distorted orvanish leaving behind nothing but the conflicting views of different interest groups. A deluge of new products and advertisement incites us to spur-of-the-moment buying, shortening product lifecycles and creating a Mobius strip of endless manufacturing and buying. Our wanting of something does not spring up from inside us but is externally stimulated from without. Speedy cultural change widens the generation gap. The younger and older generations are becoming irreconcilable or indifferent to each other. That is a slice of contemporary society in this time of waning individuality and a lack of common standards. Waning individuality is the focus of Soo-Hong`s Lee works of art. Pervaded with rationality, they unveil the dilemmas in a society which has no coordinates or erroneous coordinates. One of Lee`s recent works, entitled Inside Outside Interside, is a tree trunk with a cruciform groove cut in its center. The cruciform groove, representing the coordinates we lack today, has a different appearance from every distance and angle. Nearby on the wall he has attached a drawing depicting these different views. This is a metaphor for the fact that people today share no common coordinates. At this juncture he asks himself: if everything is shrouded in uncertainty wouldn’t it be best to admit the existing gap, just face it objectively and rationally? If we cannot agree on a single picture of the truth, wouldn’tit be best ay least to try to work out its approximate outline? However much the previous value system hascollapsed, and however hard it might be to restore it, one cannot say that restoring it is not worth trying. The inborn nature of people is ethical. Still,holding up models to the public and urging it to follow them blindly is neither ethical nor democratic. It is typically autocratic. Rational thought will be the solution that is always ready to narrow the gap. In his works, Lee has tried to make a start at filling it in. One of the reasons he became interested in the swaying truth or clashing principles of today is his childhood memories. Since his father was serving as a militaryofficer, he had to move his elementary school five times. When he moved from Seoul to Kwangju, mischievous children called him a Seoul slicker. When he moved from Kwangju to the southeastern region, his classmates mocked him as a rustic southwesterner. When the family moved back to Seoul, his classmates jeered at him as country bumpkin. In those days he constantly had to adapt himself to different regions. But when he looked back, he saw that these regional prejudices shared no common background, in fact were groundless in varied shapes in the society we live in today. That is why he chose such phenomena as the theme of Inside Outside Interside. Soo-hong Lee often hollows out tree trunks without harming their superficial shapes. This exhibition also showssimilar works which give diverse aesthetic pleasures. The two hexahedrons placed side by side suggest environmental problems. One makes the best use of natural tree bark and the other uses plywood. The former spoiled in the name of development while the latter hints at out ever-growing greediness. Lee wants to exchange with us endless stories about the way people look at the inside the outside interside.
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