13.12.12

Comme une forêt de fil. Kwangho Lee's Knots Beyond the Inevitable



Ordinary objects can become something else.

Kwangho Lee






























Weaving the memories of his childhood on a farm, Korean designer Kwangho Lee celebrates the simplicity and happiness of his ancestors' life. With his project, Very Korean, he aims at looking deeper into himself and the nature around him to connect back to "materials, behaviours, habits and scenes that were passed down through generations." Knots remind him of his grandfather cutting and tying the remains of rice straws and of his mother knitting clothes for him. "Knot-beyond the inevitable series started because I believe that, like my grandfather and many years back in history, tying and making a knot is a human instinct. Humans invented many kinds of knots for survival like fishing, hunting, building houses, transporting things. Like the past, these instinct acts are still within us. It is passed down from our parents, from our ancestors and because it is inherited, the instinct can serve a meaning more than just a simple action. The ability to change or make things with my hands is the same ability that everyone possesses. I wish that with this ability, people become more active when looking at other people or objects. "His woven-wire lamps are a tribute to his mother's knitting hobbies. "I saw the neat pile of electric wires as yarns and soon decided to knit my own. Other than knitting with needles, I developed a new way of weaving the rubber but solid wires into long, scarf-like or brush-like form of lighting. They are weaved by one long wire which varies in length -from 10 to 300 meters." 



1 Action, Reaction, Interaction, collaboration with Nameless
2 Woven wire lamp 2010 for Johnson Trading Gallery
3 Drawing New lamp, 2011
4 Solo exhibition, Comme une forêt de fil, Solo Exhibition Canada, April-June 2008
5 Woven, Johnson Trading Gallery, May 2009
6&7 Rice straws
8&9 Knots inspiration
10 Knot jewelry, The Power of Love, 2007
11 Armchair, Work for Kosid, Korean Society of Interior Architects / Designers
12 Rice straw, heavy duty conveyor belt for the purpose of moving, 2007

13 Kwangho Lee as a child wearing his mother's knitted clothes













No comments:

Post a Comment