On the Pictorial Landscape as the Unconcealment of Being, or the Reification of Floating Truth

In regards to his own painting, artist Dae-hyung Lee states that for him, painting is "a process of expressing in accordance with inner images (simsang), an imaginative process of bringing images into the world." This brief confession powerfully evokes a monumental declaration in Western art history—specifically, Michelangelo’s sculptural philosophy, which asserted that he was merely removing superfluous material to reveal the figure already contained within the stone. However, an essential aesthetic rupture exists between these two worlds. While Michelangelo sought to rescue a fixed "Forma" hidden within matter, the "image" summoned by Dae-hyung Lee is not an object permanently anchored to the physical surface of the canvas. If, as the artist expresses, the image is not merely drawn by the subject’s intention but is instead "brought into the world," the image is elevated here from a passive object to an active, writhing subject—an entity endowed with vital life force. In this realm, the artist is not a conqueror who objectify the target to drag it from a specific domain, but rather a witness and facilitator who opens a pathway so that the image may breathe on its own and walk out into the world.

The artist’s remark that "to work does not necessarily mean to paint something" gains its full significance precisely within this context. While the vast majority of painting remains confined to the aesthetics of "representation"—an endeavor to fill and possess something within the restricted territory of the canvas—Dae-hyung Lee’s brushwork is closer to clearing a path for the world, allowing the image to unconceal (gaehyeon) itself upon the surface where it inherently belongs. This artistic stance diverges completely from Western Abstract Expressionism or the blind, subconscious outbursts of the subject. Instead, it resonates deeply with Qi-yun-sheng-dong (Spiritual Resonance and Life Movement, 氣韻生動)—the foundational thought of traditional Eastern aesthetics that seeks to condense the essential life force of the entire universe onto the screen, transcending the trivialities of external appearances. His act of working, which liberates the inner images (simsang) residing in the mind into the world through the medium of the canvas, becomes an event that opens a clearing for the Heideggerian "happening of truth," where Being escapes concealment and reveals itself fully. Within this pictorial clearing opened by the artist, the inner image ceases to be a mere internal afterimage and begins to operate as a source of life through which nature's inherent order translates itself.

The nature confronting the artist, and the true identity of the inner images derived from it, become clearer as they align with the trajectory of his life. The artist previously revealed that "the nature of Korea was a harmonious and stable order to me," stating that it formed the bedrock of his visual vocabulary. However, the immense nature of Western California that he encountered after immigrating to the United States was a foreign shock that instantly upended his conventional, conceptual understanding of "naturalness." What is intriguing is that the artist did not sink into confusion in the face of this unfamiliar transformation of nature; rather, he confessed it to be the beginning of another inspiration and naturalness. This proves that to the artist, nature was not a stuffed landscape or a fixed visual object, but a living reality that constantly interacts with the subject and shapes his perception of the world. As reflected in the artist's words, "Everything I see, feel, and brush past accumulates within, becoming a way of perceiving the world," the inner image is not a blind eruption of an isolated ego, but a crystallized perception filtered through the subject’s bodily senses as it encounters the immense life force of the external world. The intrinsic attribute of nature lies in ceaseless change itself. The environmental variable of geographical relocation undoubtedly maximized the artist's perception of this change. While this dynamic transience may seemingly generate a visual suspension between familiarity and unfamiliarity, the artist’s insight pierces through the surface of changing phenomena to reach the primordial, immutable energy of nature itself. Sensing the unchanging principles of life amidst that which changes, and capturing the essential domain as an inner image within the grand flow of nature, constitutes the very core of Dae-hyung Lee's work.

Therefore, the theme of this exhibition, Floating Scenery, does not simply signify visual fragments drifting in the air. It represents the subject's gaze, which perceives the essence of nature not as a fixed "Being" but as the very "flow of time and space" that drifts and generates. Furthermore, it is a pictorial translation of Qi-yun-sheng-dong, seeking to settle the invisible flow of Qi (vital energy) onto the canvas surface. From the stage of sensing nature and generating inner images within the mind, to the entire process where those inner images take on the materiality of paint and are liberated upon the clearing of the canvas, the artist embraces the whole journey as one grand artistic experience. Refusing to reproduce concrete objects, the artist’s act of unfolding the pure energy of life onto the canvas functions as a contemporary form of Chakyung (Borrowed Scenery, 借景)—temporarily capturing the flowing essence of nature within the human perceptual field. It is a necessary process of revealing the primordial state of the world that had been concealed.

In his treatise The Origin of the Work of Art, Martin Heidegger declared, "Art is the happening of truth." What he means by the "happening" of truth is not the validation of a fixed proposition, but an event of unconcealment (Aletheia), wherein Being casts off the veil of concealment and manifests itself as it is. In other words, an artwork is not a dead canvas that merely copies the external appearance of things, but an autonomous channel that accomplishes the "opening of a clearing" so that the world and Being can finally breathe and manifest. This Heideggerian ontology is realized in artist Dae-hyung Lee’s working world in the most sensory and Eastern manner. For the artist, painting is not a place to purge arbitrary internal unconsciousness, but a sublime act of welcoming into the world the essential energy of the universe—sensed with the entire body from nature and refined within his inner images.

Consequently, through the eyes of criticism, Dae-hyung Lee’s work does not exist in a singular, frozen state of completion. His painting is a "field of sustained dynamism" where the primordial life force of nature and the sensory perception of the subject are incessantly woven and interactive upon the canvas. The artist’s message that "to work does not necessarily mean to paint something" and his confession of "a process of expressing in accordance with inner images" point to the ultimate destination indicated by the theme of this exhibition, Floating Scenery. The floating scenery presented by the artist is of a nature that can never be confined within a rectangular frame. It was floating within the inherent order of nature, lingered in the depths of the artist's inner images, and now passes through the physical medium of the canvas to sustain an endless, drifting flow that expands into the viewer's independent imaginative space. Ultimately, through this exhibition, artist Dae-hyung Lee demonstrates how truth happens and is made present through the act of art. He achieves this through the reification of truth via the act of painting—the manifestation of a colossal reality. Just as nature and the universe vividly painted the living inner images within the artist's mind, the artist opens a field and flings open a window toward the world using the canvas, reviving that breathing, living energy. Confronted by these floating sceneries that spill beyond the canvas into the spiritual realm of the beholder, the audience is no longer just a passive witness consuming visual images. Instead, they shift into the position of an autonomous companion, joining this event as they encounter a vital phenomenon where the essence of the world and the truth of Being brilliantly manifest.

- Lee Seung-hun (Art Critic)