YOORA LEE

Lonely Crowd

Artist Reception: June 6th, 4-8 PM

June 6th - July 1st, 2023

Yoora Lee’s new exhibition, “Lonely Crowd” speaks to the contemporary dilemma of community amidst an overgrown thicket of communication.  The way she talks about barriers to social interaction feels reminiscent of issues close to the French philosopher Paul Virilio. The late writer warned of the dangers occurring when virtuality trumps reality. To regain our freedom we must slow the images down, he suggested, and that’s very much what this Korean painter embodies with the freeze-frame nature of her line. It’s as though she found a pause button for daily living and is holding still to the moment.  “We are entering a world where there won't be one but two realities, just like we have two eyes or hear bass and treble tones,” said  Virilio. “There will be two realities: the actual, and the virtual. Thus there is no simulation, but substitution. Reality has become symmetrical.” The same principle can be applied to representational painting where depicted memories portray a fictive past we embrace as a recollected truth. The fluttering of Yoora Lee’s compositions combined with the pastel palette central to her storytelling create a hyper-personal fairytale as a pirc defense against an en masse melancholia.

“On a sunny spring day, people gather at a cherry blossom festival, a wedding, and a casual gathering. However, despite being physically present together, the discomforting truth emerges: individuals are absorbed in their own digital worlds. At the flower festival, people prioritize taking pictures over experiencing the beauty around them. At the wedding, guests appear bored, their attention glued to their phones instead of the momentous occasion. In the subway, each passenger is isolated, engrossed in their personal screens. Despite the appearance of togetherness, people are immersed in their own virtual realms, disconnecting from genuine human connection and the present moment.” - Yoora Lee

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