Made in LA 2023: Acts of Living at Hammer Museum (2023)
Kang Seung Lee’s complex installation pays homage to the lives and works of queer people who have been left out of mainstream history, especially artists who have died as a result of the AIDS epidemic worldwide. In various archives, Lee seeks out photographs, books, diaries, and artworks that become the basis of his labor-intensive drawings and textiles. For example, in Untitled (Chairs) Lee carefully rendered empty chairs made or owned by queer artists, highlighting the profound absence of their missing bodies. The artist’s careful hand is also evident in the gold thread embroidery of Untitled (Visitor, Slutforart, Tseng Kwong Chi), a fabric work that references the “Slutforart” visitor badges that Chinese-American photographer Tseng Kwong Chi (1950-1990) donned in photographs from the 1970s and 1980s
In his intricate, multimedia installation Untitled (Lazaro, Jose Leonilson), Lee pays homage to Brazilian artist José Leonilson (1957–1993). Delicate seed pods and dried flowers from Elysian Park (a site of gay cruising to the present day) hover above a deconstructed version of Leonilson’s final work Lazaro, a sculpture constructed from two shirts sewn together along the bottom hems. The work is made of Sambe, a woven hemp textile traditionally used in Korea for funeral shrouds. Lee also depicts plants as witnesses to their prior caretakers’ lives, a project about a cactus owned by Harvey Milk (1930–1978), who was one of the first openly gay politicians elected in the United States, assassinated in 1978. On view are both a living cactus propagated from the plant that originally belonged to Milk as well as a drawing of the cuttings of this plant that have been shared among Lee’s community. In his devotion to preserving marginalized memory and histories, Lee has also collaborated with Hee-moon Lee to create a sound piece featuring Leebyul-ga (Farewell song) in Gyeonggi Minyo, a type of traditional folk song originating in the Gyeonggi Province of South Korea that is passed down through oral tradition.
Installation view, Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Courtesy of the Hammer Museum. Photo: Charles White
All works are courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, Mexico City. Photo: Paul Salveson
