Antiques, Vintage Objects, Junk
Artist LEE Ming-tse presents his new creations in Serendipity, his latest solo exhibit. It is arranged like a film about vintage objects, where memories quietly emerge as time slowly passes by in the story. Folklore permeates the air and breaks the staleness of everyday life.
A few years ago, LEE Ming-tse built his own reclusive residence in Kaohsiung City’s Dashu District. He fills his space with potted plants, vintage objects and all kinds of deserted items that he randomly picked up. The room, along with the scattered items, becomes an isolated space that blurs the boundaries between art and life. The artist wanders around in this space all day long to search for the traces of time among the vintage items while savoring each remaining bits of it. The surfaces on most of the vintage items have begun to peel off due to age, including rusted metal pieces, cracked concrete boards, and rotten tree with deep grooves. The seasoned fire bowl and the cracked teapot accentuate the purity and bitterness of different tea leaves. As we spend some time with the artist, we can see that he’s enamored with the beauty of vintage objects while savoring the passing of time.
Serendipity, as the title of the exhibition, not only outlines the materials and theme of his artistic creation, it also hints at the tone of his art in general. Lee has always been fascinated with collecting vintage objects, he searches for anything that connects to his memories. Collecting objects is an essential part of life for Lee, a man who’s obsessed with these items. Other than objects of folk art tradition, his collection also includes a sculpted board of meridian chart, Taoism images, as well as deserted items such as a broken iron pot, pieces of rusted metal, the skeleton of a chair, cracked concrete boards, among others. For the artist, everything he scavenges is considered treasure, whether it is folk artworks, vintage objects, rotten trees and discarded items.
Objects forged in time ends up being unique, much like the life of every individual. Romanticists believe that ruins can evoke strong feelings because remnants of the past are shocking to the senses. As time passes by, vintage objects keep telling old stories to keep the memories alive. Even if the clock somehow could be turned back, the vibrant colors would have still faded over time. Hidden inside the vintage objects are the interpersonal connections that once were in an old, decrepit world. The sporadic rumors disrupt the bland reality. Lee’s own world seems to contain a sense of loneliness which, at the same time, allows him to get closer to his inner self.
On the Verge of Nostalgia
Clam Fairy is a medium-sized installation piece, however its structure and intricacy is nothing short of epic. The work is made of paper pulp and it’s shaped to look like a half-open clam, and various objects are mounted on both the inside and outside of the clam. These are mostly items that Lee has collected over the years, including embroidered tiger and cranes, ceramic vases, toy horses, a bathing beauty figurine, and shadow puppets… all are enticing in their own bizarre and absurd ways. Clam Fairy brings us into a fantasy world where time is endless, and all the objects are purified. Lee’s creative process is like a ritual of purification where he can enter and leave at will, where he can replace, tinker and rebuild. The wasted years are ultimately transformed into refined yearning, provoking a profound sense of attachment.
As the motor in Holding a Tiger by the Tail turns, it brings back the laughter and pure joy of childhood. Lee used everything in his repertoire. Through incessant manipulation and transformation, he managed to turn the famous folk art image of Celestial Master Zhang into an artwork that also encapsulates childhood stories. This is his way of expressing his yearning for a place of naivety, a possibility of returning to his younger years.
Clam Fairy and Holding a Tiger by The Tail are both dangling on the verge of nostalgia in a symbolic manner and sentimental tone. On the other hand, That Crane, Riding on The Crest of Success, Phoenix Horse playing in Spring, and Full Blossom appeal to pop culture languages. Those joyous embroidery and auspicious imagery provoke an affection for the past. Affection is a type of immediate nostalgia, it is part of the artist’s energetic and warm childhood. Still, the images of Zhu Ge Si Lang, of a masked daoke and a human pyramid in comic books are indispensible parts of his early memories. In My Own Wulin and Ranger, Lee reconstructs a fantasy stage on which he tries to to describe that fuzzy childhood memory. All the characters in My Own Wulin are from puppet theare. Moonlight Mask occupied Lee’s entire childhood, and helps establish the world in My Own Wulin. The heroes in Ranger are hidden within a lump of rusty wires, where Lee depicts a legend of Jianghu with monochrome drawings: a mysterious swordsman wonders in the mountain and forest, where those from different martial art schools are set to showcase their distinct skills. The obsession with childhood reveals a sense of nostalgia, it also reveals a more common anxiety of people entering middle age.
Reincarnation of physical objects
To create the artworks of Serendipity, Lee Ming-tse resorts to an unconventional material, the paper pulp, which allows him to develop distinct techniques and explore new possibilities. He forms the paper pulp around the vintage objects to build a “Jianghu”, a world where he can let loose his creativity. It’s a realm outside the real world where swordsmen and fighters live, where the artist can freely portray his imagination. It is a place of endless possibilities; it is both the hideout and the frontier, a true utopia.
By mending wood shreds with paper pulp, Lee prolongs the lost history of their lives. Paper pulp is also used to fix and fill the cracks on the rotten vintage objects to return them to their glory days. Paper pulp is a new creative element that forcefully intervene in the aging process of various objects and change their nature, thus triggering a potential resurrection. This vigorous intervention permits the vintage objects and stains to overcome deterioration brought by time. The texture of objects shapes the various traces of time on Lee’s artwork. He overlays and makes collages with pieces of his life experince, and reorganises the fractures of memory as a way to find himself again. With the accumulation of time, they reincarnate and finally begin to employ their own “Jianghu”.
Besides, Mu Xi Persimmon abandons the tedious descriptions and instead revives objects with paper pulp as a way to connote the Southern Song dynasty. Wrinkles extend the growth rings to describe the passing of time. Both are overflown with allegorical gestures to implicitly convey the messages to the audience. In Greenland Telescope, Black Pot, and Subshrubby Peony, all the vintage objects have reincarnated and reappear with new apperance. Showing the Cloven Hoof, Black and White, Spade K, Standing on A Dead Tree and Ring of Guanyin have all added intriguing significance to the objects with the use of paper pulp. The new look of an object always falls out of the normal realm of space-time continuum and enters the past as well as the future. Ultimately, it would scatter around in our mind and reveal certain kind of subtle and ambiguous thoughts.
Searching for self among objects
Lee yearns for his childhood years. The once flourishing cityscape, the atmosphere among the streets and the colorful memories, such as the sight, sound and smell of the characters on old streets… these fragments of the past seem to be shimmering and emerging right in front of his eyes. The artist has used peculiar techniques to mount items to express his rather implicit thoughts. He ends up summoning a poetic fantasy world that leads us, the viewers, into an endless void. On the other hand, the sheer spectacle of the world creates a certain tension and distance from the real world. This in turn creates a space within which we can search for our true selves.
Serendipity is a collection of poems that are difficult to interpret.