THE 3rd JINAN INTERNATIONAL BIENNALE
Curated by Chunchen Wang, Chief Curator at CAFA Museum
December 15th through April 2025
Shandong Art Museum, Jinan, China
The Waterfall Arts Foundation is proud to celebrate a remarkable milestone stemming from our collaborative exhibition with the CAFA Museum in July 2024. Building on this achievement, artist Lee Seunghee has been selected to participate in the prestigious 3rd Jinan International Biennale, organized by the Chinese National government. The exhibition < The Age of Human Wisdom> will take place at the Shandong Art Museum and Jinan Art Museum from December 15, 2024, to April 2025.
Lee Seung Hee will present an extraordinary installation of The Bamboo Series at the 3rd Jinan International Biennale, featuring approximately 50 red bamboo sculptures. This interactive bamboo grove installation also exhibited at the CAFA Museum, evokes the essence of a traditional ink-and-wash painting while inviting viewers to walk through its serene, contemplative space.
In Asian culture, bamboo symbolizes virtues such as modesty, integrity, and resilience. Lee’s installation reimagines these qualities through towering ceramic bamboo trunks, some nearly 14 feet high, composed of up to 1,000 meticulously crafted ceramic joints. The colors and finishes are inspired by classic Korean ceramics, with each joint varying in gloss and hue, adding depth and nuance to the overall experience.
As Alain de Botton eloquently noted in The Art of Beauty and Happiness – Memory:
“Seunghee Lee understands the traditional history of bamboo and its symbolism but wants to do something dramatic. He remakes bamboo out of the most fragile and inflexible material: clay. Thus, a fascinating tension is created between the memory of the flexible natural tree and the inflexible man-made pottery. Something that in its natural state used to bend now stands rigid and vulnerable. We are being invited to contemplate a set of oppositions — ‘Natural’-‘Man-made’; ‘Hard’-‘Soft’; ‘Flexible’-‘Rigid.’ These are properties of the clay bamboo forest versus a natural bamboo forest, but they are also properties of all of us. Seunghee Lee takes us on a walk into a forest that is a part of us all.”
Lee’s Bamboo Series transcends the material to inspire reflection on the profound balance between nature, humanity, and artistry. This installation is poised to captivate audiences at the biennale, fostering dialogue around these universal themes.
LEE SEUNG HEE
Lee Seung Hee was born in 1958 in Cheongju, the capital of North Chungcheong province, South Korea where he studied ceramics, fiber craft, dyeing, and tapestry prior to relocating to Jingdezhen, China in 2008. For the past 35 years of his artistic career, Lee has been at the revolutionary frontier in the contemporary ceramic art world. Lee has been consistently challenging the overall perspective on ceramic art, employing refined materials and leading to the innovation of contemporary ceramic paintings and installations from the traditional origins of porcelain art. Lee emphasizes motifs, materials, and colors that enable viewers to make a direct connection between his undeniably contemporary works and the rich heritage of Asian Ceramics. Lee's works accentuate the significance of soil and ground, featuring ceramics as his central motif and exploring themes of regeneration.