As seen in the plato’s allegory of the cave, all of us are constantly caught between fictions and realities, battling on the thin line between pleasure and pain.
“Wozu” is a series that show the states of inner collision among scared egos –individuals that want to look away from the truth and who, despite the clamor of voices around them, remain largely silent. ‘Wozu’ which is interpreted as “What for” by german language means continuous ontological contemplation for human being who is under agony, weak and imperfect.
Humans are often depicted as fruits fallen off the trees in the Norse mythology. Likewise, the story of Babel tower, in which the tower is reminiscent of a tall tree, seems to describe a human challenge against God as well as a desperate struggle to climb the tower to find the origin. Human beings are started from confusion. And they are destined not to stop ontological question until they reach death. Maybe, those continuous questions might be meaning of our existence in daily life. Therefore, we are still imperfect and living together floating in a world of chaos. This series originated in the bizarre and mystic image of myself reflected in the water. These sentences written right after sudden awaken from sleep, opened the starting point of my work.
I reflected myself in water and there was a stranger. I wish he disappeared tomorrow.
About Dongwook Lee
Born in 1973 in South Korea and lives and works in Paju, South Korea. He graduated Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, majored in Chinese. Self-taught photographer, until his middle-30’s he worked for numerous fashion magazines and commercial brands. As an exhibiting artist, his works has been shown in South Korea, Bulgaria, Japan, Italia, England, United States Of America. Also he has received awards from around the world. He has focused his lens on the inner collision of human beings. Inspired by his sister who is a painter, some of his compositions have a painting like quality. From his start in from photography, he has gradually expanded his art to making videos and sculptures. [Official Website]
