Two waters, 2011
Two waters, an artist-initiative project centered on “researching garden traditions and landscapes altered by continual urbanization in South Korea and China,” has traveled for two years though three regions: Goyang and Seoul in South Korea, Xiamen in China and New York in the U.S. Alongside the project title Two waters, it has a new Korean title, Gubi Sai (굽이 사이; between curves). Making a detour around its meaning, Gubi implies curves of water including streams, rivers, sea and oceans, or bodies of these waters; and Sai signifies two, as borders or thresholds exist between these bends of water.
Through handmade objects, found materials, photography, and drawing, Sandra Lee is constructing “an area of reflection shaped by her conversations, experiences and travels in South Korea, China, and the U.S”. Photographs included in this exhibition “depict mountainous ridges where major battles occurred, such as Heartbreak Ridge, stripped of all signs of life, where U.S., French, North Korean, and Chinese casualties numbered high. Echoes of division and the spaces between, run through the show both conceptually and formally,” such as Deep waters (Pacific), a large collage depicting the Pacific Ocean, created entirely from Korean newspapers torn by hand. MountainMountain comprises a large pile of sea-weathered rocks, construction rubble, bricks that were collected on the shores of Xiamen and divided by a triangular pane of glass. Informed by gardens in South Korea and China, a central element of the work can be found in the dark acrylic ponds, also a reference to “the major rivers and bodies of water integral to the Korean landscape, and it is similarly experienced in Xiamen which is a port city on the water.” Photographs of local landscapes taken by her are accompanied in this publication by two essays, one written by Korean art critic Lee Young-Wook, and the other by artist Sigurdur Gudmundsson, providing distinct aspects on the surfacing process informing the concept of her gardening.
Kim Jinjoo, Art Space Pool associate Curator