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In The pores and skin of the earth is seamless at Tina Kim Gallery, Maia Ruth Lee attracts inspiration from her personal life, together with her youth in Seoul and Nepal and experiences of migration, to think about each the confinement and freedom related to a life in movement. The solo present spans work, sculptures, and an intimate, poetic movie entitled “The Letter” (2023). This movie grounds the exhibition, pairing previous household movies that her father took, many that includes rural Nepal, with textual content from letters Lee wrote throughout the pandemic. Candid clips of day by day life present folks touring and standing on piles of colourful materials at markets, and gorgeous views of the mountainous panorama. The phrases provide glimpses into Lee’s internal ideas, her considerations for problems with household, and the idea of residence.
Lee pairs “The Letter” with sculptures made from an assortment of colourful materials and tarps, very like those seen within the video, as a part of her Bondage Baggage collection (2018–ongoing). Bundled collectively and wrapped tightly in a cage of rope, twine, and tape, the dense packages are organized in piles on the ground. In making these, she had in thoughts baggage she noticed on conveyor belts on the airport in Kathmandu. Consultant of the folks to whom they belong, every parcel bears tales of journey and migration. Lee’s bundles likewise maintain proof of the human palms that tightly wrapped every materials.
The certain gadgets push towards the ropes that confine them, bulging by the grids of their encasement, rendering a picture of containment. In her work, Lee takes the sculptures as inspiration, making use of ink to the unprimed canvas wrapped into the tight bundles. She then frees the canvas, chopping the rope and relieving the stress. The proof of getting been certain is preserved within the grid and impression of ropes. The burden, nonetheless, is gone. Areas that have been as soon as squeezed by small holes within the lattice are easy, the floor almost flat. Whereas the tracks of the ropes stay, the canvas stands taut and powerful, an embodiment of freedom. Scattered on the ground beneath are the empty rope cages, their pod-like shapes intact regardless of the contents having been eliminated, a visible reminder of their former position.
Bringing the viewer from the clips of migration and tight bundles of non-public gadgets to the colourful work that appear to have exploded out of their exoskeletons, Lee presents a robust story of the tensions and metamorphoses that migration begets.
Maia Ruth Lee: The pores and skin of the earth is seamless continues at Tina Kim Gallery (525 West twenty first Avenue, Chelsea, Manhattan) by Might 6. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.
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