The Page Gallery is delighted to present a solo presentation of Korean artist Yanghee Lee for the 2024 ART SG. The presentation features two video works that highlight the artist's investigation, experimentation, and practice of the forms and characteristics used in the performing arts.
For the past decade, Yanghee Lee has experimented with work that adopts a new perspective on Korean dance. This area has become somewhat entrenched in “tradition”, and she attempts to grasp the pure language and forms of movement rediscovered within it – the basic properties and attitude of Korean dance.
With a strong focus on exploring the structural analysis of traditional dance movements and the phenomenological relationship shaped within the system of contemporary art, Lee experiments with the meaning and possibilities of choreography. She expands its subjects and scope beyond movement to encompass the sustained and unflinching investigation of a new, multidimensional view of performing arts to rethink the notion of temporality and materiality of theatre arts and its potential amplitude in the present.
Even though the artist studied traditional Korean dance, she was also one of the pioneers of independent cultural arts movements in Korea 1990s. She created a dance group called 'The Limbo' and participated in experimental performing arts in a creative, non-traditional theater setting with various interdisciplinary artists. Since Lee moved to New York in 2005, She has worked with Phil Soltanoff, Douglas Dunn, Carlos Armesto (Theatre C), SITI Company Anne Bogart, and an international theater ensemble, which has very diverse backgrounds with dancers, writers, directors, actors, and singers.
Yanghee Lee questions the value, ownership, and enjoyment of performing arts. And proposes and experiments with choreographic methods to make the firm structure and highlight the character, attitude, and all performance elements equally. Through this intensive presentation, the artist proposes new grammar to the materiality, permanence potential, and viewing methods of performances and exhibitions and expects the archiving of individuals' time and experiences to cross the boundaries on a social and cultural basis and penetrate an autonomous "status" at present.
