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“With this body of work, Memory of Place, I have expressed my feelings and emotions through the Korean modern poem which I have remembered from my youth and the colours that I have used. The inspiration fueling these works came from early morning bushwalks in the Wyrrabalong National Park during lockdown in the Pandemic.

It gave me time to reflect and think about the value of freedom and hope, of longing and homesickness for my country, even more remote because I was unable to visit. The changes of seasons in the Australian bush prompted strong memories of the changes of the seasons in Korea. These ten paintings representing spring and autumn are derived from these experiences and memories.

The collage elements of the painting are derived from traditional Korean dress where five or seven coloured stripes are used. These are inspired by the concept of Ying and Yang and the universe’s creative forces that created the five elements, wood (blue), fire (red), earth (yellow), metal (white) and water (black), together they represent the five traditional colours of Korea.

I recreated and contemporized the colours as a soft rainbow symbolizing positive energy, optimism, a bright future and hope in the modern world. Also, I have used these as a way to continue weaving the thread that has always connected me to my spiritual home and culture.”

Hyun-Hee Lee
Artist Statement (2022)

Hyun-Hee Lee is a Korean-Australian artist whose work traverses the traditional Korean and Western art practices. She is part of the Asian diaspora, coming to Australia from Korea she experienced feelings of cultural and emotional displacement. These commonly encountered feelings encourage her to investigate ways to connect to the culture that shaped her life before migrating to Australia. Through her art she aims to establish a spiritual and cultural connection with her country of birth, this has been the driving force that has sustained and developed her art practice.

Her work explores a means of establishing connections with her family and culture of Korea by interrogating the many rituals and practices which influence the daily lives of Koreans.

She achieves this by recreating and re-contextualizing traditional religious rituals, cultural practices and customs in a contemporary context through the lens of her own experience, creating an ongoing working process which is meditative and ritualistic in its construction.

Her art blurs the conventional distinction between writing, painting and installation but through a combination of line, scale, color and medium she eloquently expresses the emotions revealed in the pages of her diaries and journals which she uses as her source material.

Hyun-Hee Lee has a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from the National Art School. She was awarded the Bird Holcomb Foundation Honours Fine Art Scholarship in 2010. Also she completed a Master of Fine Arts (Research) from the University of New South Wales Art and Design in 2015.

She has been awarded many residencies including a Red Gate Residency in Beijing, China 2012 and the Onslow/Storrier La cite International des Arts Paris Residency from the National Art School in 2013, and also awarded a COFA travelling Grant from UNSW.

Hyun-Hee was the winner of the John Coburn Emerging Artist Award, under the auspices of the Blake Prize in 2012 and finalist in 2013 and received am acquisition award in JADA in 2014 and 2018.

Her works have been selected for numerous National Art Awards and Prizes including HIDDEN Rookwood sculptures 2021, Dobell Drawing Prize 2021, Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award, Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Sunshine Coast Art Prize and KAAF Art Prize. Also, she has been selected in the City of Sydney Banner Gallery Design for the Sydney Lunar New Year Festival 2022.

Hyun-Hee has had many solo and selected group exhibitions. She is represented by Artereal Gallery in Sydney and Kara’s Gallery in Seoul.

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