Lee Kit: Resonance of a sad smile

Editors’ notes

stiffness, coldness, solitude, but not calm

there’s an indignation, an aggression, though repressed

a subdued anger that floats in the air

structure, order, yet dim, diminishing with the changes of lighting

daytime and nighttime from the window view of Lee Kit’s temporary flat, a temporary home he must pass by

as a traveler, always in mobile, he submits to it

always keeping a certain distance, from Home, the foundation of his frustration, and needing to transform or restore in a new city.

He extracts sentiments from narratives

because they might unveil the violence hidden inside, which he tries so hard to contain, ignore, and slough over.

solitude has been written, “desire can’t be fixed to be written in a book”.

those empty pages, blank spaces to be filled with resentment in life.

This is an artist’s book, a selection of Lee Kit’s personal writings, drawings, snapshots, a book pulling things in a wider context, but through a naked eye.

the title of the exhibition is Resonance of a sad smile. what does that smile imply?

when I saw the show two days prior to the opening, Lee Kit was still in the final process of fine-tuning the works. I said to him “this is a fierce show, you are angry, but in silence.”

a bleak scent dissolved in the pervasive light of ordinaries

what to reduce and what to increase becomes a meditation

banality is good

words don’t cooperate with images

music doesn’t dance with emotions

they are unexplained, indirect.

Is he promising a better life? or he is just being sarcastic.

only if he can accommodate a place to rest

maybe all Lee Kit has been doing is looking for peace of mind,

he hasn’t found it yet, so he continues traveling, planting seeds wherever his works are housed.

And we are the lucky ones. we believe it when he says

“it won’t get any better.”

Excerpts

An old me is looking at the work.

What is he thinking?

As he slowly walks by, the work does not disappear.

—Excerpted from Lee Kit: Resonance of a sad smile, P51

The morning’s disquiet is pointlessly quiet.

I hope that I can get used to it.

The relationship between two people who live together can be described as harmonious and satisfying if at least one of them can keep on writing freely.

—Excerpted from Lee Kit: Resonance of a sad smile, P135

Time is a subject in and of itself.

It feels like the most intimate partner,

Yet too close to be real.

—Excerpted from Lee Kit: Resonance of a sad smile, P69

This book has been published on the occasion of the exhibition, Lee Kit: Resonance of a sad smile (March 1-April 28, 2019) at Art Sonje Center, Seoul.

Photo by Wen Peng

Image and Text: the shop, ©Authors, the shop, 2019