Intertwined Time, Permeated Trace
번역: 김미혜
Translated by Mihye Kim
얽힌 시간, 스민 흔적 – 박천, 시안미술관 학예실장
느린 환절기_전시전경
1. Trace, Time
We perceive time as a linear concept, flowing from yesterday through today and into tomorrow. This view may stem from the Western philosophy that has come to dominate the general framework of our thought system. However, in contrast, the East Asian tradition presents a quite different experience of time. It is not merely a one-way flow; rather, it is experienced as something that repeats, accumulates, and sometimes intertwines within the rhythmic cycle of nature, such as the sunrise, sunset and the rotating seasons. In other words, from an East Asian perspective, time is not stuck to the linear flow. Instead, every moment is perceived as a complex web interwoven with the past, future and present. Could this point of view have originated from the space created by the interaction between humans and nature, based on the way living things continue to exist embracing memories within the natural cycles of life and death?
Jung-min Lee attempts to encapsulate this multilayered experience of time as the symbolic core of her work. Her aim is to reconstruct the marks left by nature, humans, materials and environment into a new layer of interconnected relationship. What matters here is to reveal that time is a dynamic process, one that intertwines and transforms in the moment known as the present, opening up new possibilities, rather than something that ruminates on the past or predicts the future. Certainly, it also includes the relationship between the past and future, as well as the continuity between them.
Therefore, the images contained in her works do not simply remain as traces of time passed. They describe a new layer of relationships created by materials sourced from nature and environmental elements, which are then enhanced through the artist’s intervention. The materials, such as wild grass and other organic matter, change over the course of time. The experiences and memories that remain in this process encapsulate the interactions among nature, humans and materials. Thus, the images in her works are reconstructed as the result of relationships and transformation, beyond being just a single memory or record. In this way, the elements such as traces are physical evidence of time and the foundation of the stories generated at the intersection of nature and humanity.
Much like nature itself, Lee’s works explore new potential by defying the linear flow of time and taking on unpredictable forms after the intersection and transformation. And her works also question whether, like nature, they have the possibility of establishing the “natural” definition in the course of moving toward an uncertain destination.
2. Intertwinement, Transformation
The word “nature” is commonly understood as a single, unified concept. However, in fact, it is rather a complex web in which many elements intersect and intertwine. Nature is not a thing in which each individual existence moves independently. Rather, it is something that reveals itself through the process of building relationships via interactions. The artist has taken this characteristic of nature as the foundation of her work. She visually exposes the fact that the intertwining of time, environment, and material are the substances which actively build relationships and transform. In this context, the term “intertwinement” refers to the idea that existence itself is formed through these complex relationships. More specifically, it means recognizing every relationship as mutually constitutive - breaking down the inseparability of the artist (as subject and creator) and objects (including time, society, environment, material, and humans), and tearing down the boundaries between material and immaterial as well as between human beings and non-human beings.
느린 환절기_sunprinting, natural dyeing, oriental ink, botanic emulsion on paper_2022
The anecdote during production of her work _Slow Season Change_ provides a clear example of how her work incorporates elements of nature and environment (including its randomness). During her outdoor work, an unexpected rain caused the humidity of the ground surface to rise quickly. This change caused the paper to repeatedly dry and retain moisture on its surface, and led to shifts in the work. This environmental intervention blurred the boundaries between the images more than the artist had originally planned. Some parts of the work even became hazy due to temperature and humidity differences. Reflecting on this process, the artist said, “I think this work has been completed by nature, not by myself, consequently.” This statement highlights that time and environment played key roles as active agent in the creating process, rather than remaining mere secondary background factors.
This instance of _Slow Season Change_ visually demonstrates how the rhizomatic network operates. In Jung-min Lee’s work, environmental factors and the artist’s intentions do not exist in a hierarchical relationship of center and subordination. Instead, interacting within a rhizomatic network, each factor functions as part of an emergent process that creates new forms. Environmental intervention is not regarded as a secondary variable, such as a fault or an error, which influences the artwork. Rather, it becomes a primary element that constitutes the essential substance of the work itself. The artist did not attempt to control, instead, she actively embraced these chance occurrences, making them an integral part of the creation. Through this process of such intervention, she redefines the relationships at play and visually expresses the potential contexts created by time and environment. Thus, Jung-min Lee’s work is not limited to simply reenacting or manifesting nature. Through the activeness and the randomness of nature, her work explores the “process” of relationships and transformation, expanding into a new epic.
3. Process, Relationship
In works of this nature, which incorporate context, “process” can be understood in a way similar to what _Alfred North Whitehead_ articulated – to regard any existence not as a fixed substance but as a dynamic process, constantly evolving through infinite change and interaction. In this sense, such a philosophical framework becomes the key to understanding the relationship between time and the traces reflected in the artwork.
사소한 이동1_sunprinting, natural dyeing, botanic emulsion on paper_2022
사소한 이동2_sunprinting, natural dyeing, botanic emulsion on paper_2022
Jung-min Lee has gone through the repetition of numerous experiments and failures (in terms of production methods) before arriving at her current body of work. As she puts it, “The journey always involved various variables, situations and conditions that influenced the work. It made me agonize, flounder, search for new approaches. All these processes combined and continued.” Thus, her work may be understood as part of an ongoing process, still developing, rather than as something that always seeks to deduce the final deliverables. In other words, this kind of continuous experimentation does not aim for a singular, predetermined outcome; instead, it unfolds through successive new attempts, grounded in accumulated experiences.
In her solo exhibition _Change of Position_, both the artworks and the exhibition’s curatorial intent clearly reveal not only the relationship between time and trace but also the process through which this relationship is constructed. In neglected urban spaces, wild grass grows by itself so naturally, overcoming the environmental factors altered by humans. And it interacts with the flow of neglected time, functioning as a medium that connects the past and the present, regardless of its outward appearance. This may be due to its origin as nature itself, even before the city was established. In this way, memories, accumulated through the interrelations of objects, continue to be formed and transformed within the “process” as well.
Meanwhile, the experimental approaches within her production process deepen the essence of this relationship. Natural dyeing and classical printing techniques are not just the artist’s chosen methods; they serve as supporting evidence of how timing and environmental factors contribute to the formation the artwork. As we know, both techniques rely on the influence of external environment, such as sunlight, temperature and humidity to yield their results. In this context, the artist embraces these environmental interventions rather than controlling them, and integrates them into the work. Whereas today’s methods of printing or dyeing often involve extreme limitation and control over variables, Jung-min Lee’s work can be seen as pursuing a more classical approach, fostering a cooperative relationship with nature. Furthermore, this very approach becomes part of the trace and process. The work, which invites traditional memory to coexist with today, does not merely serve as a passive record of the past. Instead, it functions as an active mechanism, continuously generating meaning through new relationships. In short, both the creation process of the artwork and the artist’s approach to it possess a range of artistic potential as ever-evolving existences, constantly changing and reforming.
4. Intertwinement, Process, Trace
The possibilities explored by Jung-min Lee are based on two key ideas: 1) the formation and transformation of relationships at the intersection of the concepts of time, intertwinement and process, and 2) the traces left behind. The work visualizes how existence and transformation emerge within a relational network that intertwines, interweaves, and expands without a center. The artist’s approach, which views existence as a non-fixed thing and as a thing constantly reorganized through interaction and change, positions her work at the point of limitless expansion despite its unpredictability.
스물네 개의 해_natural dyeing on paper_13x11cm, eachx240_wood frame_172x28cm, eachx12_2023
This point is evident in her artwork _Twenty-four Suns_. As the title clearly indicates, “Twenty-four Suns” refers to the traditional time system which divides a year into twenty-four solar terms. However, when Jung-min Lee adopted these twenty-four divisions of the year, she did not directly bring in their cultural context. Instead, she restructured them symbolically, using them as a framework through which time and relationships become interconnected and transformed. This solar term system, which segments the flow of time into seasonal changes, serves as a symbol of the interaction where human activities and natural phenomena harmonize. Jung-min Lee expands this traditional concept into philosophical reflections, visually expressing the intertwining created by human and nature.
For instance, when the same work is carried out during Major Snow, a midwinter term, and Major Heat, a midsummer term, the differences in light, heat and humidity provide completely different textures in the final artwork. While traces with strong contrast and clear boundaries remain in the cold air and dim light of Major Snow, the hot sunlight and humid atmosphere of Major Heat highlight blurriness and a smoothing process. This difference cannot be dismissed or interpreted as mere natural coincidence. Rather, it functions as a symbol of the process in which time and environment actively involve themselves in the artist’s work.
해그림자 서서하니_전시전경
해그림자 서서하니_전시전경
What is crucial to recognize here is that the process of integrating natural and environmental conditions into the work – and the artist’s interpretation of them – becomes the driving force behind the development and execution of the work. It is not about relying on natural coincidence. This distinction reveals the subtle difference between an attitude of accepting coincidence and one of fully depending on it. Natural conditions such as sunlight, humidity, and temperature play a pivotal role in her work, but they acquire meaning only through the artist’s plans and intentions.
From this perspective, Jung-min Lee’s work demonstrates how non-human conditions and human intervention establish relationships, while simultaneously highlighting the subjectivity of humans within the same network. Unlike the common argument focused on natural coincidence, the artist does not passively accommodate non-human conditions; instead, she integrates them into her own intentions, reinterpreting them to create new meaning. This process, while akin to _Gilles Deleuze_’s rhizome concept, distinguishes itself through the strong role of human intention, rather than a decentralized interconnection. Moreover, this process - where time, environment and the artist’s intervention are intimately linked – supports the idea that traces are not merely outcomes, but are generated through the dynamic interplay of relationships and processes. This extends into practical works that explore the potential of relationships through transformation and reorganization. Jung-min Lee’s work serves as a practical example of how philosophical reflections are expressed through visual language in contemporary art, offering another angle through the relationships formed at the intersection of human, nature, time and environment.
2025.03. ACK 발행. ACK (artcritickorea) 글의 저작권은 필자에게 있습니다. March. 2025. Published by ACK. The copyright of the article published by ACK is owned by its author.
Intertwined Time, Permeated Trace
번역: 김미혜
Translated by Mihye Kim
얽힌 시간, 스민 흔적 – 박천, 시안미술관 학예실장
느린 환절기_전시전경
1. Trace, Time
We perceive time as a linear concept, flowing from yesterday through today and into tomorrow. This view may stem from the Western philosophy that has come to dominate the general framework of our thought system. However, in contrast, the East Asian tradition presents a quite different experience of time. It is not merely a one-way flow; rather, it is experienced as something that repeats, accumulates, and sometimes intertwines within the rhythmic cycle of nature, such as the sunrise, sunset and the rotating seasons. In other words, from an East Asian perspective, time is not stuck to the linear flow. Instead, every moment is perceived as a complex web interwoven with the past, future and present. Could this point of view have originated from the space created by the interaction between humans and nature, based on the way living things continue to exist embracing memories within the natural cycles of life and death?
Jung-min Lee attempts to encapsulate this multilayered experience of time as the symbolic core of her work. Her aim is to reconstruct the marks left by nature, humans, materials and environment into a new layer of interconnected relationship. What matters here is to reveal that time is a dynamic process, one that intertwines and transforms in the moment known as the present, opening up new possibilities, rather than something that ruminates on the past or predicts the future. Certainly, it also includes the relationship between the past and future, as well as the continuity between them.
Therefore, the images contained in her works do not simply remain as traces of time passed. They describe a new layer of relationships created by materials sourced from nature and environmental elements, which are then enhanced through the artist’s intervention. The materials, such as wild grass and other organic matter, change over the course of time. The experiences and memories that remain in this process encapsulate the interactions among nature, humans and materials. Thus, the images in her works are reconstructed as the result of relationships and transformation, beyond being just a single memory or record. In this way, the elements such as traces are physical evidence of time and the foundation of the stories generated at the intersection of nature and humanity.
Much like nature itself, Lee’s works explore new potential by defying the linear flow of time and taking on unpredictable forms after the intersection and transformation. And her works also question whether, like nature, they have the possibility of establishing the “natural” definition in the course of moving toward an uncertain destination.
2. Intertwinement, Transformation
The word “nature” is commonly understood as a single, unified concept. However, in fact, it is rather a complex web in which many elements intersect and intertwine. Nature is not a thing in which each individual existence moves independently. Rather, it is something that reveals itself through the process of building relationships via interactions. The artist has taken this characteristic of nature as the foundation of her work. She visually exposes the fact that the intertwining of time, environment, and material are the substances which actively build relationships and transform. In this context, the term “intertwinement” refers to the idea that existence itself is formed through these complex relationships. More specifically, it means recognizing every relationship as mutually constitutive - breaking down the inseparability of the artist (as subject and creator) and objects (including time, society, environment, material, and humans), and tearing down the boundaries between material and immaterial as well as between human beings and non-human beings.
느린 환절기_sunprinting, natural dyeing, oriental ink, botanic emulsion on paper_2022
The anecdote during production of her work _Slow Season Change_ provides a clear example of how her work incorporates elements of nature and environment (including its randomness). During her outdoor work, an unexpected rain caused the humidity of the ground surface to rise quickly. This change caused the paper to repeatedly dry and retain moisture on its surface, and led to shifts in the work. This environmental intervention blurred the boundaries between the images more than the artist had originally planned. Some parts of the work even became hazy due to temperature and humidity differences. Reflecting on this process, the artist said, “I think this work has been completed by nature, not by myself, consequently.” This statement highlights that time and environment played key roles as active agent in the creating process, rather than remaining mere secondary background factors.
This instance of _Slow Season Change_ visually demonstrates how the rhizomatic network operates. In Jung-min Lee’s work, environmental factors and the artist’s intentions do not exist in a hierarchical relationship of center and subordination. Instead, interacting within a rhizomatic network, each factor functions as part of an emergent process that creates new forms. Environmental intervention is not regarded as a secondary variable, such as a fault or an error, which influences the artwork. Rather, it becomes a primary element that constitutes the essential substance of the work itself. The artist did not attempt to control, instead, she actively embraced these chance occurrences, making them an integral part of the creation. Through this process of such intervention, she redefines the relationships at play and visually expresses the potential contexts created by time and environment. Thus, Jung-min Lee’s work is not limited to simply reenacting or manifesting nature. Through the activeness and the randomness of nature, her work explores the “process” of relationships and transformation, expanding into a new epic.
3. Process, Relationship
In works of this nature, which incorporate context, “process” can be understood in a way similar to what _Alfred North Whitehead_ articulated – to regard any existence not as a fixed substance but as a dynamic process, constantly evolving through infinite change and interaction. In this sense, such a philosophical framework becomes the key to understanding the relationship between time and the traces reflected in the artwork.
사소한 이동1_sunprinting, natural dyeing, botanic emulsion on paper_2022
사소한 이동2_sunprinting, natural dyeing, botanic emulsion on paper_2022
Jung-min Lee has gone through the repetition of numerous experiments and failures (in terms of production methods) before arriving at her current body of work. As she puts it, “The journey always involved various variables, situations and conditions that influenced the work. It made me agonize, flounder, search for new approaches. All these processes combined and continued.” Thus, her work may be understood as part of an ongoing process, still developing, rather than as something that always seeks to deduce the final deliverables. In other words, this kind of continuous experimentation does not aim for a singular, predetermined outcome; instead, it unfolds through successive new attempts, grounded in accumulated experiences.
In her solo exhibition _Change of Position_, both the artworks and the exhibition’s curatorial intent clearly reveal not only the relationship between time and trace but also the process through which this relationship is constructed. In neglected urban spaces, wild grass grows by itself so naturally, overcoming the environmental factors altered by humans. And it interacts with the flow of neglected time, functioning as a medium that connects the past and the present, regardless of its outward appearance. This may be due to its origin as nature itself, even before the city was established. In this way, memories, accumulated through the interrelations of objects, continue to be formed and transformed within the “process” as well.
Meanwhile, the experimental approaches within her production process deepen the essence of this relationship. Natural dyeing and classical printing techniques are not just the artist’s chosen methods; they serve as supporting evidence of how timing and environmental factors contribute to the formation the artwork. As we know, both techniques rely on the influence of external environment, such as sunlight, temperature and humidity to yield their results. In this context, the artist embraces these environmental interventions rather than controlling them, and integrates them into the work. Whereas today’s methods of printing or dyeing often involve extreme limitation and control over variables, Jung-min Lee’s work can be seen as pursuing a more classical approach, fostering a cooperative relationship with nature. Furthermore, this very approach becomes part of the trace and process. The work, which invites traditional memory to coexist with today, does not merely serve as a passive record of the past. Instead, it functions as an active mechanism, continuously generating meaning through new relationships. In short, both the creation process of the artwork and the artist’s approach to it possess a range of artistic potential as ever-evolving existences, constantly changing and reforming.
4. Intertwinement, Process, Trace
The possibilities explored by Jung-min Lee are based on two key ideas: 1) the formation and transformation of relationships at the intersection of the concepts of time, intertwinement and process, and 2) the traces left behind. The work visualizes how existence and transformation emerge within a relational network that intertwines, interweaves, and expands without a center. The artist’s approach, which views existence as a non-fixed thing and as a thing constantly reorganized through interaction and change, positions her work at the point of limitless expansion despite its unpredictability.
스물네 개의 해_natural dyeing on paper_13x11cm, eachx240_wood frame_172x28cm, eachx12_2023
This point is evident in her artwork _Twenty-four Suns_. As the title clearly indicates, “Twenty-four Suns” refers to the traditional time system which divides a year into twenty-four solar terms. However, when Jung-min Lee adopted these twenty-four divisions of the year, she did not directly bring in their cultural context. Instead, she restructured them symbolically, using them as a framework through which time and relationships become interconnected and transformed. This solar term system, which segments the flow of time into seasonal changes, serves as a symbol of the interaction where human activities and natural phenomena harmonize. Jung-min Lee expands this traditional concept into philosophical reflections, visually expressing the intertwining created by human and nature.
For instance, when the same work is carried out during Major Snow, a midwinter term, and Major Heat, a midsummer term, the differences in light, heat and humidity provide completely different textures in the final artwork. While traces with strong contrast and clear boundaries remain in the cold air and dim light of Major Snow, the hot sunlight and humid atmosphere of Major Heat highlight blurriness and a smoothing process. This difference cannot be dismissed or interpreted as mere natural coincidence. Rather, it functions as a symbol of the process in which time and environment actively involve themselves in the artist’s work.
해그림자 서서하니_전시전경
해그림자 서서하니_전시전경
What is crucial to recognize here is that the process of integrating natural and environmental conditions into the work – and the artist’s interpretation of them – becomes the driving force behind the development and execution of the work. It is not about relying on natural coincidence. This distinction reveals the subtle difference between an attitude of accepting coincidence and one of fully depending on it. Natural conditions such as sunlight, humidity, and temperature play a pivotal role in her work, but they acquire meaning only through the artist’s plans and intentions.
From this perspective, Jung-min Lee’s work demonstrates how non-human conditions and human intervention establish relationships, while simultaneously highlighting the subjectivity of humans within the same network. Unlike the common argument focused on natural coincidence, the artist does not passively accommodate non-human conditions; instead, she integrates them into her own intentions, reinterpreting them to create new meaning. This process, while akin to _Gilles Deleuze_’s rhizome concept, distinguishes itself through the strong role of human intention, rather than a decentralized interconnection. Moreover, this process - where time, environment and the artist’s intervention are intimately linked – supports the idea that traces are not merely outcomes, but are generated through the dynamic interplay of relationships and processes. This extends into practical works that explore the potential of relationships through transformation and reorganization. Jung-min Lee’s work serves as a practical example of how philosophical reflections are expressed through visual language in contemporary art, offering another angle through the relationships formed at the intersection of human, nature, time and environment.
2025.03. ACK 발행. ACK (artcritickorea) 글의 저작권은 필자에게 있습니다. March. 2025. Published by ACK. The copyright of the article published by ACK is owned by its author.