Lee Dongwook

Dongwook Lee’s fascination lies in the living organisms that don’t affect their external environment outside the containers they inhabit, such as aquariums and water tanks. The objects of containment are things the artist collects and observes as his hobby, and they become a part of the artist’s work according to the situation and concept the artist intends or at times they become the work itself which expresses the physical oppression of an individual.

Basically he is interested in people, like those living like the fish, stuck inside an enclosed space, living without any freedom, living under physical oppression and/or in desperate situations. The pieces which utilize articles from Lee’s personal collection of objects depict the desperateness of the situation even more specifically and doubles the sensation of brutality and the fact that his characters are naked makes the viewer identify him of herself with these characters which in the end may even evoke pity and sympathy.