List

Lee Sunjoo

  • 이선주 1번 이미지
Introduction of Artist
For Lee Sunjoo, travel is a moment to reflect upon her life and reaffirm her sense of self. It is an experience of self-discovery. Rather than accepting the conventional meaning of travel, Lee reinterprets the concept through her own perspective. Within society, individuals assume multiple identities—as family members, professionals, and members of a community. The artist believes that it is by stepping away from these social roles that one is able to perceive one's true self with greater clarity. She therefore redefines travel not simply as physical movement (Yeohaeng, 旅行), but as an inward journey (Yeohaeng, 女行), a process of reflecting upon her life as a woman.

Her travels have taken her to destinations including Udo Island, Geoje Island, Southern France, Tokyo, and Las Vegas. Whenever she encounters an unfamiliar place, her attention is drawn less to well-known landmarks than to the subjects that naturally hold her gaze: trees swaying in the wind, wildflowers, forest plants, and the ever-changing surface of the sea. Observing these elements allows her not only to document the landscape but also to recognize what continues to attract her attention and, ultimately, what she values most. Travel thus becomes a means of understanding herself through careful observation of the natural world.

Although Lee's photographs originate in travel, they ultimately take the form of still-life compositions. Upon returning home, she revisits the sensations and memories gathered during her journeys. The flowers and plants she encountered, together with impressions of color, form, light, and atmosphere, remain vivid long after the journey has ended. Drawing upon these recollections, she carefully selects, arranges, and reconstructs objects into new compositions. Experiences acquired through travel are transformed through processes of curation and staging, ultimately becoming still-life photographs. Rather than presenting documentary views of particular locations, her photographs invite viewers to encounter the perspective of an individual who has experienced those places firsthand. Through this approach, Lee preserves photography's documentary character while simultaneously creating images that possess a distinctly painterly quality.

Lee's recent works can be understood as a process of translating the self discovered through travel into the language of still-life photography. For the artist, travel offers a renewed perspective on herself, while the still life recalls the memories of those journeys and provides a means of sharing those experiences with others. Nature serves as the connective thread between these two realms. Reconstructing memories and emotions gathered in unfamiliar places through carefully arranged objects, Lee presents them as photographs that continue to evolve beyond the original journey. In doing so, travel becomes more than a singular experience; it is continually reinterpreted, generating new meanings over time.

Related ArtworksVIEW ALL

Close