HRD FINE ART

Introduction

HRD FINE ART proudly announces its first exhibition in 2018 featuring Korean wood sculptor Jaehyung Lee, entitled "Tools - Replacing Mind."

Jaehyung Lee studied sculpture at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea before moving to the United States, where he earned an MFA in wood working and furniture design at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Currently he is based in his home country and works as a sculptor.

What characterizes his sculptural work is coexistence of mutually conflicting concepts, such as functionality and aesthetics, specification and abstraction, etc. For instance, one has to call his work that has details of a stool but that never functions as a stool "object," but combined with his masterly technique and smooth craftsmanship, the work may seem to embrace the notion of "depaysement," which was practiced by Surrealist artists, or the spirit of "beauty of imperfection" advocated by wabicha tea masters of medieval Japan.

In this exhibition the artist Lee presents his recent works that are shaped like tools and machinery. These tools, however, are destined to fail as "tools." But are they really not as good as they look? Jaehyung Lee's works shake and destabilize our usually-unquestioned views towards things, objects, and materials around us.