Conceptual note 2024

Trees, Stones

– Living Things, Dead Things

Lee Gil-Rae

Life is a dynamic process that involves changes in nature, and this applies to all living organisms, including humans. Trees, for instance, are considered alive as they grow, take root, die, and change. In contrast, we perceive stones as lifeless because they do not exhibit the physical properties of change and growth. I wonder whether our perception of an object’s physical properties is accurate. After all, what distinguishes living and non-living things is just a matter of perception, and they are perhaps repeatedly going through the cycles of life and death. It seems like all entities are in a repetitive process of creating life, dying, and being reborn.

Human life is short compared to the vast time of nature, but we humans carry a new life and live our lives endlessly. Seen from an individual's point of view, death is the end, but we have achieved perpetual human history, giving rise to new life. What matters is that life precedes death and vice versa. This simple repetition is what drives the continuity of human history. There is no need to delve into the spiritual concepts of any particular religion, especially Christianity to understand it.

 Trees and stones again Trees and stones should be perceived not as alive and dead but as the current state of physical properties in an absolute sense. This is the basis for transforming organic properties into the logic of cycles. Thus, the tree becomes the stone, and vice versa. Nature itself lies within the cycle of life, sometimes fusing or sometimes changing. Humans have been taught to have the virtue of humility toward life. I feel that our perception of our existence and planet just being a speck in the vastness of space should be revised based on the logic of cycles. The perception that life and death are not different leads both finite humans and infinite nature to their permanent state.

 I try to learn this thought from my friendly neighbors of life such as trees and stones. Although pieces on display at this exhibition are an extension of my previous work involving trees, I brought in stones for a contrasting physical property. I try to reach the homogeneity of one life, perceiving trees and stones not as contrasting but as a cyclical link. This is another way to understand the world(humanity).