Sean Lee (OS 2019)
Architecture, Columbia University 2019–2022
The monochromatic black is the embodiment of purity. It
is so absorbing of not only light as we know by the laws of
physics, but also that of one’s attention, emotional capacity
and imagination; a state of stillness is established. This
black displaces the need for meaning, allowing this painting
to be pure as an exercise of mark making with the grids,
seemingly rational, undermined by the irrationally
gestural marks.
It is also the same monochromatic black that facilitates
a study on light. The surface is not smooth but heavily
textured in its grids and subconsciously derived marks –
causing light to be absorbed and reflect in an unpredictable
manner. This painting then becomes a physical experience
with the resulting image, owing to such intervention by
light, constantly changing depending on the varying angles
of one’s vantage point. Amid this ambiguous state, the
by-product of such effect is indeed a sense of movement
that is captured in the moment of viewing. In fact, the black
is so intensely black that it deceptively appears as white
under certain light conditions.